CANADIAN AND WORLD MINERAL DEPOSIT DATABASES
Geological Survey of Canada


Deposit number Country Location Names Commodities
769 Argentina (Salta) 25.05.50 S -- 067.40.00 W Arizaro; Arizaro Prospect Cu; Au; Fe
 
Database name: World Fe-oxide+/-Cu-Au-U (IOCG) deposits
Compilers: Sunil S. Gandhi
Release date: 2015-03-04
   
Deposit name(s): Arizaro; Arizaro Prospect
Political location(s): Argentina; Province or state: Salta
Deposit clan (type): Olympic Dam-type
Deposit (sub) types: Reference: Dow, R. J.; Hitzman, M. H., 2002: Geology of the Arizaro and Lindero Prospects, Salta Province, Northwest Argentina: Mid-Miocene Hydrothermal Fe-Ox Copper-Gold Mineralisation; Section The Americas, in Hydrothermal Iron Oxide Copper-Gold and Related Deposits: A Global Perspective, Volume 2, Edited by Porter, T. M., Australian Mineral Foundation, Adelaide, Australia, PGC Publishing, Adelaide, 377 p, p. 153 - 162
Deposit status: prospect; Size category: small
Geologic province: Miocene-Pleistocene Andean Arc
Geologic subprovince: Puna Plateau
Geologic district: Arizaro Basin
Commodities: Cu; Au; Fe
Mineralization styles: breccia-fillings; veins and associated disseminations
Geological ages: Miocene (host rocks)
Miocene (mineralization)
Tectonic setting: continental arc-inter-arc; convergent; Formal name: Miocene-Pleistocene Andean Arc (host rocks)
Coincident features: intrusive core (breccia-filling and stockwork of magnetite veins with K-feldspar, grade outward to biotite-bearing zone, and then to spotty biotite zone); Coincident feature name: Arizaro Volcanic Complex
Regional tectonic structure: plateau uplift due to subduction-related crustal thickening (rapid uplift and continental volcanism continued to Pleistocene) Tectonic structure name: Miocene Andean Arc
Host rocks: (1) intrusive; quartz monzonite-monzogabbro suite (one of three zones of intrusive rocks in Arizaro Volcanic Complex); Magma series/sedimentary package/metamorphic group: calc-alkaline; Depositional setting: arc-back arc basin; Metamorphic grade: none
External host rock forms:massive, porphyritic to equigranular
Host rock protoliths:intermediate porphyry (phenocrysts of plagioclase, hornblende and minor augite in groundmass of plagioclase and K-feldspar)
Internal host rock structures:porphyritic
Individual lithologies:monzodiorite (subvolcanic intrusive related to andesitic volcanics of the Arizaro complex; surrounded by volcaniclastic breccia and cut by radial dykes)
Host rock stratigraphy:Porphyritic Intrusive
Country rocks: (1) red sandstone; (Cretaceous-late Oligocene; arkosic); Country rock name: Red Bed Sequence; Metamorphic grade: none
Country rock protoliths:arkose (immature red arkosic sandstone, with evaporatic sediments, up to 4 km thick; 100x100 km basin; western third of the basin 'salar' or nitarte field); Country rock protolith name: Arizaro Basin
Individual lithologies:arkose (product of rapid uplift and erosion; forms the basement to Miocene-Pleistocene volcanics)

(2) intermediate volcanics; (with related volcaniclastic and intrusive rocks); Country rock name: Arizaro Volcanic Complex; Metamorphic grade: none
Country rock protoliths:andesites (dominantly andesitic volcanics, related volcaniclastic rocks and porphyritic intrusives); Country rock protolith name: Arizaro Volcanic Complex
Individual lithologies:andesites (undeformed and unmetamorphosed rocks; ca. 15 Ma old )
Metallogenic signatures: Fe-Cu-Au
Alteration signatures: potassic alteration: marked by flooding of K-feldspar with magnetite ; What was altered: host intrusion
biotitization: stockwork of biotite-K-feldspar-magnetite veins; What was altered: host intrusion
biotitization: biotite-chalcopyrite spots; rim with magnetite; What was altered: host intrusion
propylitic alteration: calcite, biotite and chlorite; What was altered: phenocrysts of host intrusion
Mineralogy: (alteration): epidote, chlorite, sericite, quartz, clay minerals, copper oxides (oxidation zone)
(gangue): k-feldspar, biotite, calcite, diopside, quartz
(mineralization): magnetite, chalcopyrite, bornite, gold, palladian gold, actinolite
Radiometric ages: Object dated: Host Rocks(1); Age - Ma: 16.35; +0.35; -0.35; Dating method: Ar-Ar; Concentrate: whole rock; Source rock: porphyritic intermediate intrusion; Formal name: intrusive event; Event dated: host rock; Interpretive comment: age of relatively unaltered intrusive rocks indicates the time of emplacement ; Reference: Dow, R. J.; Hitzman, M. H., 2002: Geology of the Arizaro and Lindero Prospects, Salta Province, Northwest Argentina: Mid-Miocene Hydrothermal Fe-Ox Copper-Gold Mineralisation; Section The Americas, in Hydrothermal Iron Oxide Copper-Gold and Related Deposits: A Global Perspective, Volume 2, Edited by Porter, T. M., Australian Mineral Foundation, Adelaide, Australia, PGC Publishing, Adelaide, 377 p, p. 153 - 162

Object dated: Mineralization Style(1); Age - Ma: 15.46; +0.11; -0.11; Dating method: Ar-Ar; Concentrate: biotite; Source rock: biotite-K-feldspar-magnetite zone; Formal name: mineralization event; Event dated: mineralization; Interpretive comment: sample from thoroughly biotitically altered rock; the age is close to the age of the host rock; Reference: Dow, R. J.; Hitzman, M. H., 2002: Geology of the Arizaro and Lindero Prospects, Salta Province, Northwest Argentina: Mid-Miocene Hydrothermal Fe-Ox Copper-Gold Mineralisation; Section The Americas, in Hydrothermal Iron Oxide Copper-Gold and Related Deposits: A Global Perspective, Volume 2, Edited by Porter, T. M., Australian Mineral Foundation, Adelaide, Australia, PGC Publishing, Adelaide, 377 p, p. 153 - 162

Object dated: Mineralization Style(1); Age - Ma: 13.98; +0.38; -0.38; Dating method: Ar-Ar; Concentrate: K-feldspar; Source rock: massive K-feldspar; Formal name: mineralization event; Event dated: inner potassic alteration zone; Interpretive comment: sample from K-feldspar-magnetite-actinoliteħbiotite zone; age significantly younger than biotite age; Reference: Dow, R. J.; Hitzman, M. H., 2002: Geology of the Arizaro and Lindero Prospects, Salta Province, Northwest Argentina: Mid-Miocene Hydrothermal Fe-Ox Copper-Gold Mineralisation; Section The Americas, in Hydrothermal Iron Oxide Copper-Gold and Related Deposits: A Global Perspective, Volume 2, Edited by Porter, T. M., Australian Mineral Foundation, Adelaide, Australia, PGC Publishing, Adelaide, 377 p, p. 153 - 162
Qualified comments: (Applies to: discovery and development) Discovered in 1999; a 636 m long N-S trench averaged 0.13 % Cu and 0.22 g/t Au, and a 516 m long trench at 025° starting near S end of the former averaged 0.13 % Cu and 0.24 g/t Au; minor Ag, Zn, La.
References:
Dow, R. J.; Hitzman, M. H., 2002
Geology of the Arizaro and Lindero Prospects, Salta Province, Northwest Argentina: Mid-Miocene Hydrothermal Fe-Ox Copper-Gold Mineralisation
Section The Americas, in Hydrothermal Iron Oxide Copper-Gold and Related Deposits: A Global Perspective, Volume 2, Edited by Porter, T. M., Australian Mineral Foundation, Adelaide, Australia, PGC Publishing, Adelaide, 377 p, p. 153 - 162


Generated 2015-03-04 14:14:02 with GQuery -- 3.7 ADO (3.19..3.22 -- 2008-12-16)
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