INVESTIGATING PLATE TECTONIC CONTROLS ON NORTH AMERICA CORDILLERA COPPER PORPHYRY SYSTEMS

The North American Cordillera along Alaska, western Canada, the western US, and western Mexico contains extensive porphyry copper systems that may offer undiscovered opportunities for local sources of minerals for a clean energy future. Porphyry copper systems are primarily formed at convergent plate boundaries; as such, machine learning approaches using plate tectonic reconstruction inputs are being developed to identify prospective mineralized districts near known mineral districts. However, North American Cordillera plate tectonics are vigorously debated and there is no single, broadly accepted plate model, with disagreements on plate kinematics, subduction polarity, the timing and location of terrane accretions and possible terrane translations (i.e. Baja-BC); and, possible flat slab subduction events.

We show preliminary results on how various proposed North American Cordillera plate tectonic histories may control the emplacement of porphyry copper systems and potential prospective areas. We input a diverse set of published North American Cordillera plate reconstructions into a published spatio-temporal machine learning model for porphyry copper systems. We compare the generated copper mineralization prediction maps against known porphyry copper deposits to explore tectonic parameters that influence the formation of porphyry copper deposits. We assess the range of predictions for porphyry copper systems based on plate tectonic history to reveal regions where mineral exploration could be enhanced by addressing plate tectonic uncertainties.