Supergene Enrichment and Ore Deposits: Geochemical Mobility and Accumulation of Metals

William X. Chvez, Jr. New Mxico School of Mines Socorro, New Mxico 87801
Spence, Chile: porphyry system oxide profile

<wxchavez@nmt.edu>

SUPERGENE METALS MOBILITY IS A FUNCTION OF NUMEROUS GEOCHEMICAL - AND PHYSICAL FACTORS:

Source/Sink Region Characteristics High S:Me (usually = high pyrite content, sulfide abundance) Low reactivity alteration assemblages having stable silicates (through hydrolysis and cation leaching) High fracture permeability (allows fluid movement) Oxidizing/reducing environment over extended period of time structural, climatic implications

Quebrada Blanca, Chile

Exhumation of Miocene age porphyry systems in the Tethys Belt shows variable enrichment and present removal of leached cappings protolith via aggressive erosion:
Ovajik region, eastern Turkye active ferrihydrite precipitation

SarChesmeh and Meduk, I.R.I.

various Himalaya examples

WORLDWIDE SOURCES OF COPPER BY ORE DEPOSIT TYPE

1% 7% 14% Porphyry VMS + Sedex Skarn Vein "IOCG"

57% 21%

Leached capping development in a high-pyrite environment

Fortuna de Cobre, Chile

Do all high-pyrite environments promote significant metals mobility?

Atalaya Pit, Rio Tinto, Spain

Most economically-important supergene copper occurrences are the result of: multiple periods of migration and accumulation of metals (e.g., see Adler, 1956) represent multiple ages for weathering and metals transport (not necessarily characteristic of other base metals)

Chuquicamata, Chile

enriched keel (phyllic to advanced argillic)

Fortuna Igneous Complex

Chuquicamata, Chile

Cambrian Coronado Quartzite ~1000 meters higher than in the mine area

Coronado (CuOx)

Northwest Extension (mixed CuOx-sulfide)

Sulfide accumulation as chalcocite >> covellite Morenci, Arizona

Mid-Oligocene age rhyolitic ignimbrite

Paleosurface with hematite goethite leached capping

Santa Rita, New Mxico Photo: Dr. J. Richard Kyle

descent of cappingenrichment contact

cover sequence hematitic capping jar + gt capping

enrichment zone (grey = reduced)

Cuajone, Per

volume of essentially complete Cu removal and replacement by red hematite residual chalcocite with variable replacement by red hematite

LEACHED CAPPING with residual Cu as relic chalcocite and adsorbed Cu on hematite, goethite; Cu concentration varies significantly because of residual and diverse copper mineralogy, so up to 2000+ ppm Cu available.

Porphyry systems characterized by well-preserved K-silicate constructive alteration usually display geochemically limited metals mobility because of hostrock reactivityso, age dating may rely on oxide-associated minerals, notably Mn oxides.

Radomiro Tomic, Chile

In-situ oxidation of sulfides: chalcocite atacamite + hematite

Note red hematite halos adjacent to chalcocite from where comes the Fe+++?

1 cm

Spence, Chile

Mobilization of metals:
to what distances can one expect metals to be transported?

MnOx in Recent alluvial sediments

where this does not work.

precipitation of malachite on boulders from pH = 6.1, low total sulfate stream waters

source porphyry-skarn system with variable supergene enrichment

Southwestern China

El Salvador leached capping

Cretaceous andesites with exotic chrysocolla

Damiana, Chile

Early, mb-only quartz veins

Later highgrade cv + py + en veins

Chuquicamata, Chile

lavendulan

chenevixite ceruleite

El Guanaco, Chile

 ilsemannite as a product of molybdenite oxidation

Precipitation of silica pH alkaline (why?)

Eh

Al+++(aq)

Al2O3.H2O(s)

AlO2(aq)

Al

pH Stability of aluminum in a supergene environment

Conclusions
Supergene metals mobility is a function of a series of geochemical and physical parameters each of which are significant in determining how, and how much, metals are transported during weathering. Structural considerations are notably important for controlling and preserving metals accumulation