2009 Portland GSA Annual Meeting (18-21 October 2009)

Paper No. 7
Presentation Time: 9:00 AM-6:00 PM

THE SIERRA GORDA PORPHYRY CU-MO(AU) DEPOSIT, REGION II, NORTHERN CHILE, PART 2: INTRUSIVE RELATIONS AND 40AR/39AR AND RE-OS MOLYBDENITE GEOCHRONOLOGY OF THE CATALINA AND 281-ZONE MINERALIZATION CENTERS


SHAVER, Stephen A., Department of Forestry and Geology, Sewanee--University of the South, 735 University Avenue, Sewanee, TN 37383, MANSKE, Scott L., P.O. Box 649, Lakeside, OR 97449, CURRIE, Jack, KGHM International, General Borgoño 934, Of. 802, Antofagasta, Chile, FAHEY, Patrick L., Quadra Mining Ltd, 257 Corte San Marco, Palm Desert, CA 92260, MAYA, Jorge, Minera Quadra Chile Ltd, General Borgoño 934, Of. 802, Antofagasta, Chile, STEIN, Holly J., AIRIE Program, Department of Geosciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1482, USA, and Geological Survey of Norway, Trondheim, N-7491, Norway and HUARD, John J., College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, 104 COAS Admin. Bldg, Corvallis, OR 97331, sshaver@sewanee.edu

Seven Re-Os moly ages and 26 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages (plag, bio, sericite, Kspar) suggest that Sierra Gorda’s Catalina and 281-Zone mineralization resulted from ~3.m.y. (60.06 ±0.39 to 57.31 ± 0.19 Ma) of ongoing igneous/hydrothermal activity. Sourced by an underlying monzodiorite (MD) batholith, each center hosts up to 15-20 small intrusive bodies (many <100m wide), but intrusions & breccias (bx) differed between centers. The 281-Zone is largely a dike swarm of fine-groundmass (<0.1mm) feldspar porphyry (PF) (± granodiorite porphyry PG). By contrast, Catalina is a porphyry/bx-pipe complex of PG dikes/plugs, lesser PF, tourmaline bx (BXT), potassic bx (BXH), and stocks and cupolas texturally zoned from MD-porphyry cores (with 0.1-2mm graphic groundmass) to intensely K-feldspathized carapaces of coarse (0.1-2mm) graphic aplite (Sienogranite SG). Locally, SG cupolas grade downward into qtz-feld-tourm pegmatite and upward into vuggy tourm “flash breccia” (caused by L-to-V flash). Moly veins (Kspar±bio halos) predate chloritic cpy veins (± ser, py) in both centers. Coupled samples (moly with bio or overprinted by ser) suggest that individual Sierra Gorda hydrothermal events took <250-400 Ka to cool from moly Re-Os closure (~600°C) to bio (~300-350°C) or sericite closure (~270-325°C). Re-Os and 40Ar/39Ar samples suggest at least 6 igneous/hydrothermal events of that approximate duration: (1) 60.06 ±0.39 to 59.55 ± 0.36 Ma, Cu/Mo-destructive sericite, 281-Zone only, (2) 59.74 ± 0.37 to 59.40 ± 0.20 Ma (moly) to 58.99 ± 0.33 Ma (ser), (3) 58.73 ± 0.33 to 58.60 ± 0.26 Ma (bio+ser), (4) 58.48 ± 0.23 Ma moly to 58.23 ± 0.35 Ma (ser), Catalina only, (5) 58.03 ± 0.24 to 57.38 ± 0.23 Ma (9 bio+ser ages + 1 Kspar), and (6) 57.31 ± 0.19 Ma moly to 57.05 ± 0.29 Ma Kspar, Catalina only). However, there may have been many more than 6 hydrothermal events during this ~3 m.y. history, given that (1) each of Sierra Gorda’s >30 intrusions appears to have produced at least some potassic-to-sericitic veining, and (2) data from Potrerillos (Marsh et al., 1997) suggest that small intrusions (<500m) can cool from 900°C to 200°C in <40 Ka. Youngest Sierra Gorda ages (56.55 ± 0.28 to 56.03 ± 0.24 Ma (plag+Kspar) record district cooling to feldspar closure T (~150-250°C).