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Space-Time Distribution, Crustal Setting and Cu/Mo Ratios of Central Andean Porphyry Copper Deposits: Metallogenic Implications

  • Conference paper
Geology and Metallogeny of Copper Deposits

Part of the book series: Special Publication No. 4 of the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits ((MINERAL DEPOS.,volume 4))

Abstract

At least 80 porphyry copper centres, 18 of them major deposits, are known from the central Andes of Chile, Argentina and southern Peru. They are assignable to four longitudinal sub-belts of Meso-Cenozoic age, which become progressively younger from Late Cretaceous in the west, through Paleocene and Late Eocene-Early Oligocene, to Middle-Late Miocene in the east. A fifth, Late Carboni-ferous-Early Permian sub-belt is overprinted by the Middle-Late Miocene sub-belt.

The porphyry copper sub-belts are underlain by sialic crust ranging from about 35 to 60 km in present thickness. Outcropping pre-Mesozoic basement rocks range from 2,000-m.y. granulites to Paleozoic magmatic and sedimentary units.

Hypogene Cu/Mo ratios of major deposits range from 22 to 88. No systematic variation in Cu/Mo ratios is discernable within or between the three Cenozoic sub-belts. Neither are ratios dependent on the lithology or age of known pre-Mesozoic basement rocks, nor on crustal thickness.

The lack of correlation between Cu/Mo ratios and spatial or upper-crustal parameters is consistent with derivation of the principal metals in the porphyry copper deposits from subcrustal levels. The fact that the regionally extensive series of temporally and spatially discrete sub-belts parallels the axis of the Peru-Chile trench, and migrated systematically away from it, strongly supports involvement of fundamental subduction-related processes in the liberation of metals incorporated into central Andean porphyry copper deposits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 8 West Hill Park, Highgate Village, London, N6 6ND, England

    R. H. Sillitoe

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  1. R. H. Sillitoe
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Mineralogie und Lagerstättenlehre, RWTH Aachen, Wüllnerstraße 2, 5100, Aachen, Germany

    Günther H. Friedrich

  2. CCCP/IGEM, Staromonetny, 35, 109017, Moscow, USSR

    Alexandr D. Genkin

  3. Department of Geology, University of Toronto, M5S 1A1, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Anthony J. Naldrett

  4. 1402 NW 18th Street, 32605, Gainesville, FL, USA

    John D. Ridge

  5. 8 West Hill Park, N6 6ND, Highgate Village London, England

    Richard H. Sillitoe

  6. Geologisk Institut Norges Tekniske Høgskole, Universitetet i Trondheim, 7034, Trondheim, Norway

    Frank M. Vokes

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Sillitoe, R.H. (1986). Space-Time Distribution, Crustal Setting and Cu/Mo Ratios of Central Andean Porphyry Copper Deposits: Metallogenic Implications. In: Friedrich, G.H., Genkin, A.D., Naldrett, A.J., Ridge, J.D., Sillitoe, R.H., Vokes, F.M. (eds) Geology and Metallogeny of Copper Deposits. Special Publication No. 4 of the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits, vol 4. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70902-9_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70902-9_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-70904-3

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