Abstract The supergiant Chuquicamata porphyry Cu-Mo deposit in northern Chile is truncated on its west side by a N-S-trending regional fault (the West fault), juxtaposing its ore to a relatively barren granodiorite (Fortuna Igneous Complex). There has been much speculation about the fate of, and extensive exploration for, the “missing half” of the deposit. It has been proposed that the west side of the fault hides the ore at depth, or that it was uplifted and the ore eroded; however, regional geologic mapping suggests that the West fault had a postore left-lateral strike-slip displacement of ca. 35 km. Accordingly, exploration, so far unsuccessful, has been focused in an area 35 km south near the Loa River and the city of Calama. In 1989, the Mina Ministro Hales (MMH) deposit was unexpectedly discovered west of the fault, under thick gravels, only 7 km south of the main mine. A previous study at MMH had suggested that mineralization was as old as 39 Ma, hence its ores were correlated with deposits of that age near Calama. Our recent U-Pb and Re-Os dating indicates that MMH mineralization was formed between 35 and 31 Ma, thus concurrently with Chuqui. The geochemistry of host Triassic and Eocene porphyry intrusions, ore mineralogy, and common Pb isotope ratios of hypogene sulfides at MMH and Chuqui proper are indistinguishable. Fluid inclusion data for paragenetically early porphyry assemblages at MMH closely mimic T h -salinity data from earlier studies at Chuqui, showing little or no evidence of boiling but indicating widely fluctuating confining pressures, compatible with hydraulic fracturing and fault movement during and after mineralization at a minimum initial lithostatic constraint of 5- to 8-km depth. We propose that MMH is a sheared-off portion of Chuqui, wedged in a fault cymoid loop and spared the full 35-km displacement of the West fault.

Abstract Recent detrital zircon results in both the central Appalachians and New England demonstrate that middle Ordovician, ‘Taconic’ island arcs, long considered to be peri-Laurentian, are built upon or associated with rock of Gondwanan affinity. This trip will visit granulite-facies orthogneiss of the Wilmington Complex, a 475–480 Ma magmatic arc, and the adjacent Wissahickon Formation. The Wissahickon Formation is intruded by and interlayered with meta-igneous rocks with arc affinity and contains detrital zircon populations characteristic of both Gondwanan and Laurentian sources. The Chester Park Gneiss, now known to have detrital zircon age spectra which match the Gondwana-derived Moretown Terrane in New England, is also featured. The trip will examine contact relationships between arc and Laurentian rocks and a newly discovered location where metapelitic rock contains garnet with crystallographically oriented rutile inclusions, possibly indicative of ultrahigh-temperature or ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism. We will discuss similarities between rocks of the central and northern Appalachians and evaluate a new model wherein the central Appalachian rocks were originally part of the Taconic arc in New England and were translated by strike-slip deformation to their present position in the orogen.

Abstract We examined the copper isotope ratio of primary and secondary copper mineralization of porphyry copper deposits. Distinct Cu isotope reservoirs exist for high-temperature hypogene, enrichment, and leach cap minerals. Chalcopyrite from high-temperature primary mineralization forms a relatively tight cluster of δ 65 Cu values of +1 to –1 per mil, whereas secondary minerals formed by low-temperature reveal a range of δ 65 Cu values from –16.96 to +9.98 per mil. Secondary chalcocite is relatively heavy, with δ 65 Cu varying from –0.3 to +6.5 per mil. Leach cap minerals dominated by Fe oxides (jarosite, hematite, and goethite) are relatively light, ranging from –9.9 to +0.14 per mil. A distinct pattern of heavier copper isotopes in supergene samples and a lighter isotopic signature exists in the leach cap and oxidation zone minerals. The pattern presents an excellent tool for using Cu isotopes for exploration through providing the following information: (1) identification of highly fractionated copper isotope ratios in copper sulfide and Fe oxide samples that indicate supergene processes and the extent of leaching and enrichment of copper, and (2) identification of highly fractionated copper isotope ratios in surface and/or groundwaters that indicate the active weathering of copper sulfides that experienced significant enrichment.

Abstract Combined isotopic dating indicates five episodes of felsic intrusion within the El Teniente orebody: (1) Sewell stock and other quartz diorite-tonalite intrusions of the eastern part crystallized from 6.46 ± 0.11 to 6.11 ± 0.13 Ma (zircon U-Pb); (2) quartz diorite-tonalite, immediately southeast of the orebody, with biotite 40 Ar/ 39 Ar plateau ages of 5.63 ± 0.12 and 5.47 ± 0.12 Ma—these ages agree with a hydrothermal overprint on zircons from the intrusions of the previous episode at 5.67 ± 0.19 to 5.48 ± 0.19 Ma (U-Pb); (3) Teniente dacite porphyry crystallized at 5.28 ± 0.10 Ma (zircon U-Pb); (4) a dacite ring dike encircling the Braden pipe crystallized at 4.82 ± 0.09 Ma (zircon U-Pb); and (5) minor dacite intrusions and dikes yielded a biotite 40 Ar/ 39 Ar plateau age of 4.58 ± 0.10 Ma, and sericite 40 Ar/ 39 Ar plateau ages of 4.56 ± 0.12 to 4.46 ± 0.10 Ma. All these felsic intrusions were emplaced within country rocks of late Miocene according to an apatite fission-track age of 8.9 ± 2.8 Ma for a mafic sill, in accord with previous K-Ar ages of 12.0 ± 0.7 to 6.6 ± 0.4 Ma for volcanic rocks from the district. Molybdenite Re-Os dating at El Teniente revealed ore deposition at 6.30 ± 0.03, 5.60 ± 0.02, 5.01 to 4.96, 4.89 ± 0.08 to 4.78 ± 0.03, and 4.42 ± 0.02 Ma, concurrent with the five intrusive episodes. The Re-Os system for molybdenite was unaffected by the various hydrothermal episodes. In contrast, the 40 Ar/ 39 Ar system of micas was reset by high-temperature (>350°C) fluid circulation and provides only a partial record of the latest history of development of this supergiant ore-forming system; biotite, sericite, and altered whole-rock samples collected throughout the orebody yielded 40 40 Ar/ 39 Ar plateau ages ranging from 5.06 ± 0.12 to 4.37 ± 0.10 Ma. These ages reveal a period of hydrothermal activity, which extended either continuously or episodically, for at least 0.69 ± 0.22 m.y. (±2σ) and that comprises a succession of three episodes of ore deposition. Separate hydrothermal episodes are thus interpreted to have lasted <0.69 ± 0.22 m.y. The Braden breccia pipe in the center of the deposit was formed as a single synmineralization event, probably related in time to the injection of the dacite ring dikes at 4.82 ± 0.09 Ma (zircon U-Pb). It was followed by quartzsericite alteration within and peripheral to, the pipe from 4.81 ± 0.12 to 4.37 ± 0.10 Ma (sericite 40 Ar/ 39 Ar). The successive intrusions of felsic bodies and their respective crystallization processes were immediately followed by genetically related, short-lived episodes of ore deposition, each associated with hydrothermal alteration. This multistage evolution, inferred from systematic dating, was not apparent from previous geochronologic data and is inferred to have contributed to the enormous volume and richness of the El Teniente. Thermal modeling of apatite fission-track data suggests that the porphyry system cooled very rapidly to temperatures below 105° ± 20°C, most likely before the intrusion of a postore hornblende-rich andesitic dike at 3.85 ± 0.18 Ma (hornblende 40 Ar/ 39 Ar). This dike cuts the southern part of the El Teniente deposit and marks the end of igneous activity in the orebody.