Structural controls on the superposition of high sulfidation epithermal mineralisation into porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits: lessons from Rosario,

northern Chile
D.R. Cooke1, G.J. Masterman*1, R.F. Berry, J.L. Walshe2 and P.A. Gow**2
1

CODES, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 79, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia, d.cooke@utas.edu.au * current address: Bolnisi Gold NL, Chihuahua, Mexico

CSIRO Exploration and Mining, 26 Dick Perry Av, Kensington, Western Australia 6151

** current address: XStrata Exploration, Mt Isa, Australia

Abstract
The Eocene-Oligocene porphyry belt of northern Chile contains the worlds largest accumulation of porphyry-related copper metal. Conflicting models exist regarding the relative importance of strike-slip and reverse faulting during the emplacement of the porphyry and epithermal systems, based on regional studies and also from work at the Chuquicamata deposit. In contrast, at the Collahuasi district, high sulfidation state copper-silver mineralisation was superimposed into the core of the Rosario copper-molybdenum porphyry deposits along normal faults during gravitational collapse of the Domeyko Cordillera. Exhumation of the porphyry environment occurred rapidly during this event, allowing near-surface epithermal mineralisation (< 200m paleodepth) to be juxtaposed into the potassic altered core of the porphyry deposit (estimated depth of formation: 1300 m) in the space of approximately one million years. Mass wasting after major episodes of tectonic uplift provides an effective method of hypogene upgrading of porphyry ores by high sulfidation mineralisation.

Introduction
Genetic relationships between porphyry and high sulfidation state (HS) epithermal mineralisation are well-established (e.g., Arribas et al., 1995; Hedenquist et al., 1998). However, reasons as to why some porphyry and HS deposit couplets are separated spatially, whereas others are superimposed into the same space remain obscure. Many giant Eocene-Oligocene porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits occur in the Domeyko Cordillera of northern Chile, including behemoths such as Chuquicamata, La Escondida and Rosario, together with other major deposits such as El Abra, El Salvador, Radomiro Tomic, El Abra, Mansa Mina, Toki, Gaby and La Fortuna (Fig. 1). Several of the largest deposits are hybrid porphyry-epithermal systems, with high sulfidation state mineralisation superimposed into the potassically altered core of the porphyry deposit (e.g., Chuquicamata, Rosario, La Escondida, El Salvador; Fig. 1). Northern Chile is therefore an ideal location to investigate likely mechanisms of superposition (or telescoping) of the epithermal environment into the core of the porphyry system.

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Figure 1. Map showing the location of the Collahuasi district relative to other major copper and gold deposits in Chile and western Argentina. Metallogenic belts for the five major copper provinces are also shown. Dashed contour lines are the depths to the Wadati-Benioff zone. Modified from Muntean and Einaudi (2000) and Masterman et al. (2005).

Geological setting
Since the Paleozoic, the geological evolution of northern Chile has included periods of terrain accretion, passive margin and back-arc basin sedimentation, protracted subduction and arc magmatism. Intermittent episodes of magmatic activity have occurred since the Jurassic, with the principal magmatic arc migrating eastwards from the Coastal Cordillera (Jurassic) to the Longitudinal Valley (Cretaceous), Precordillera (Eocene-Oligocene) and Western Cordillera (Miocene-Recent). Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary volcanism was terminated by the Incaic orogeny. The Incaic orogeny marks a change in the tectonic regime from extensional to strong orogeny-normal shortening (Scheuber and Reutter, 1992). The change in deformation regime is interpreted to be the result of a change in plate configuration in the south east Pacific between 110 and 70 Ma. Southward migration of the Aluk-Farallon spreading centre resulted in a reduction in the angle of convergence along the South American margin. 78

Porphyry and high sulfidation mineralisation formed between 42 and 31 Ma in the Precordillera, with the giant porphyry deposits forming towards the end of this metallogenic epoch. The older, smaller deposits in the southern end of the belt (El Salvador, Potrerillos; Fig. 1) are goldenriched relative to their northern counterparts. Migration of the northern Chilean magmatic arc 100-280 km to the east over the last 200 million years resulted in the overprinting of the back-arc environment by a magmatic arc, followed by subsequent forearc environment. Interaction of the back-arc architecture, together with earlier architectures (Palaeozoic terrane boundaries, sutures, etc) with the magmatic arc during the EoceneOligocene was fundamental to the formation of the Eocene-Oligocene porphyry province.

Domeyko Fault System

A variety of terms have been used to describe the dominant N-S trending fault system evident within the Precordillera of northern Chile. These include the West Fissure (Falla Oeste in Spanish), Domeyko Fault System, and West Fissure Fault System. The terminology west is derived from the type locality at the Chuquicamata Mine where a single branch of this fault system defines the western margin of the ore deposit (e.g., Lindsay et al., 1995; Ossandon et al., 2001). The Domeyko Fault System has in part controlled emplacement of the Eocene-Oligocene porphyries of northern Chile. The northern portion of the Domeyko Fault System represents the reactivated eastern margin of the main Jurassic back-arc basin, and hosts a complex set of broadly N-S structures. Eocene-Oligocene magmatism was structurally focussed and attaining greatest volumes where the Domeyko Fault System intersects other structures, either transverse transfer structures, or N-S thrusts (inverted syn-sedimentary normal faults?) Lindsay et al. (1995), among others, argued that strike-slip fault movements on the West Fissure controlled the emplacement of the Chuquicamata porphyry deposit. The plate convergence vector provided by Pardo-Casas and Molnar (1987), based on plate reconstructions from prominent ocean floor magnetic anomalies, suggests a constant ENE-directed convergence from 49 Ma, with a minor change to ESE between 26-20 Ma. This convergence direction should have translated into a dominantly dextral sense of strike-slip movement on the Domeyko Fault System. However, movement sense indicators on the fault system show a highly variable sense of movement. Notably the sense of movement commonly interpreted as associated with mineralisation is sinistral (Reutter et al., 1996). In contrast to the strike-slip models, McClay et al. (2002) and Skarmeta et al. (2003) have argued that the convergence angle was too high for major strike-slip fault movements along the Domeyko Fault System during the Eocene-Oligocene. Instead, they have shown that the Domeyko Fault System is dominated by thrust faults, some of which have reactivated basinbounding normal faults associated with Jurassic back arc sedimentation.

Collahuasi district
A cluster of Eocene-Oligocene porphyries occur in the Collahuasi district (Fig. 2), including the supergiant Rosario (3.11 Gt @ 0.82 % Cu, 0.024 % Mo and 0.01 g/t Au), and the giant Ujina (636 Mt @ 1.06 % Cu), and Quebrada Blanca porphyry deposits (400 Mt @ 0.83 % Cu, 0.015 % Mo and 0.1 g/t Au; Camus, 2002). The district also contains high sulfidation state epithermal copper-silver veins (including La Grande and Rosario), the intermediate sulfidation state Montcezuma epithermal silver vein system and the Huinquintipa exotic copper deposit. Epithermal veins in the Collahuasi district have been mined since at least 1400 AD, with the peak of epithermal mining activity occurring between 1907 and 1920 (Moore and Masterman, 2002). The porphyry potential of the district was realised with the advent of modern exploration in the latter half of the twentieth century, although significant difficulties were encountered in bringing the mines into production. Claims staked in the late 1950s resulted in the discovery of 79

Figure 2. Generalized geology of the Rosario, Cerro La Grande and Quebrada Blanca areas. The outline of copper mineralization at the Rosario and Quebrada Blanca porphyry centres is shown, as well as vein-hosted Cu-Ag-(Au) massive sulfide occurrences at Poderosa and Cerro La Grande. Highgrade silver occurs in a laminated intermediate-sulfidation quartz vein at Monctezuma. Modified from Masterman et al. (2005) after Munchmeyer et al. (1984).

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the supergene-enriched Quebrada Blanca deposit in 1977 (production commenced in 1994). Subsequent exploration resulted in the discovery of Rosario in 1979 (first mined in 2002) and Ujina in 1991 (initial production in 1998).

Hypogene upgrading at the Rosario Porphyry Cu-Mo Deposit

At the Rosario porphyry deposit, high sulfidation epithermal veins have been superimposed into the core of the porphyry system, resulting in significant hypogene upgrading of the porphyry ore (Masterman et al., 2005). This process produced reverse alteration zonation with central domains of advanced argillic and phyllic alteration that have overprinted more laterally extensive potassic and propylitic alteration zones. Similar alteration patterns have been reported at Chuquicamata (Ossandon et al., 2001). The Rosario porphyry was emplaced at 34.4 0.4 Ma (Masterman et al., 2004). Potassic alteration and the mineralised quartz vein stockwork formed at depths of around 1,300 m below the paleosurface, based on fluid inclusion results (Masterman et al., 2005). Exhumation of the porphyry system allowed for superposition of massive sulfide epithermal veins and advanced argillic alteration into the core of the porphyry system at 32.6 0.3 Ma. The epithermal veins at Rosario formed at depths of approximately 200 m below the paleosurface, implying that at least 1 km of rock was eroded at Rosario over a period of approximately 1 m.y. The Rosario Porphyry intruded immediately after the Incaic tectonic phase (Fig. 3a), implying that it was emplaced as the Domeyko Cordillera underwent gravitational collapse. Gravitational sliding along normal faults, such as the Rosario Fault, potentially accelerated exhumation and helped to promote telescoping of the high-sulfidation environment onto the Rosario Porphyry (Fig. 3b).
Figure 3. Northeast-southwest schematic section showing a model of divergent gravitational collapse inferred to have affected the Collahuasi district. a) Most of the late Eocene shortening was accommodated by isoclinal folds in the Mesozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Note that the Permian basement was uplifted relative to the Mesozoic sequences along deep which may have included the Domeyko and Loa fault systems. Thin-skinned deformation (e.g., reverse faults) was accommodated along low-angle thrusts and inverted basin-margin faults. Magmas ascended from a mixing, assimilation, storage and homogenization (MASH) zone at the base of the crust to levels of neutral buoyancy in the middleto-upper crust. They did not erupt, but crystallized and produced high-level, intrusioncentred brittle-ductile veins (e.g., the early-stage veins at Rosario). b) Partial collapse of the orogenic belt is inferred to have occurred at the end of the Incaic Orogeny. Crustal units were detached along gravity slides that were potentially connected to thrusts in the foreland. Detritus from erosion was either collected in basins above the detachments or transported out of the system. Exhumation changed the environment from lithostatic to hydrostatic at the site of ore formation and coincided with formation of intermediate and late-stage veins at Rosario. That porphyry and superimposed high-sulfidation style mineralization occur at the same crustal level implies protracted intrusive activity at Rosario and the existence of a well-developed and replenished MASH zone at the base of the crust. Adapted for the Collahuasi district from a diagram in Rey et al. (2001). Modified after Masterman et al., (2005).

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This mechanism has proven highly effective at generating giant, high-grade hypogene resources throughout northern Chile, and should be a focus for exploration in other porphyry provinces.

Acknowledgments
This study was part of AMIRA International project P511. We are grateful to the Centre for Ore Deposit Research (CODES), AMIRA International, CSIRO Exploration and Mining and Compaia Minera Doa Ins de Collahuasi (CMDIC) for providing financial, logistical and technical support. Manuel Durn is thanked for approving and funding the work at Collahuasi. We appreciate permission to publish from AMIRA International and CMDIC. Thanks also to Jorge Skarmeta from CODELCO for numerous insights into the structural evolution of northern Chile.

References
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Author
David Cooke is an Associate Professor and leader of the Ore Formation research program at CODES, the Australian Research Councils Centre of Excellence in ore deposits at the University of Tasmania. He gained a BSc(hons) from La Trobe University and a PhD from Monash University. David and his students have been researching porphyry and epithermal mineral deposits from around the Pacific rim for the past twenty years. David is the 2005 Thayer Lindsley lecturer for the Society of Economic Geologists.

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