Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Huancabamba Deflection marks an abrupt change in the trend of the Andean orogen, from NNE-SSW
in the Northern Andes, to NNW-SSE in Peru. It is interpreted (e.g., Klein et al., 2011) to coincide with the east-
west, sinistral Amazon Megashear that extends eastward into the Amazonian Craton. An accompanying sub-
parallel, generally east-west, sinistral structure the Tumbes-Guyana Megashear, occurs ~200 km to the north.
To the east, these two structures coincide with the northern margin of the Solimoes Basin, the broader western
extension of the Neoproterozoic to Recent Amazon rift basin. To the west they appear to be truncated by the
major NNE-SSW Cauca-Pujilí and Romeral-Peltetec-Huancabamba fault complexes that define the tectonic
framework, and separate the oceanic and cratonic domains, of the of northern Andes and the adjoining
segment in Ecuador. However, over the interval of the intersection of these structures, the Cauca-Pujilí and
Romeral-Peltetec-Huancabamba fault complexes, are disrupted by cross features and deflected (e.g., the
Dolores-Guayaquil Megashear), and host a much greater density of porphyry and epithermal deposits in
southern Ecuador. Both of these generally east-west structures are of Precambrian age and experienced
multiple reactivation events since then, and represent major zones of crustal weakness (Jacques, 2003).
The Abancay (or Pisco) Deflection is a ENE-WSW continental trench-normal structure that marks the
northern limit of the central volcanic zone of southern Peru, offsets/deflects the Cordillera Oriental by ~150 km
and coincides with the northern limit of the Precambrian Arequipa basement block along the Pacific coast in the
SW. It also marks a change in structural trend, from NNW to the north, to NW-SE in southern Peru as well as
coinciding with the southern limit of current flat slab subduction. Projected to the east, it follows the southern
margin of the Solimoes Basin.
The Peruvian Andes are composed of two parallel ranges the Cordillera Occidental (Western cordillera),
corresponding to the Cainozoic magmatic arc, and the Cordillera Oriental (Eastern cordillera), a belt of post-
Permian uplift (or lesser subsidence) that exhumed Precambrian crystalline and Palaeozoic sedimentary and
igneous rocks. The two ranges are separated by an upland of relatively subdued relief, and narrow
intermontaine depressions, which during the Cainozoic have been the site of continental deposition.
Between the Pacific flank of the western magmatic arc and the oceanic trench, there is a system of fore-arc,
partly submerged basins along the narrow continental shelf and coastal plain (Benavides-Cáceres, 1999).
The western flank of the Cordillera Occidental is occupied by the Cretaceous to Paleocene Coastal batholith,
carbonate-rich Mesozoic country rocks, and the overlying Cainozoic volcanic arc and other localised plutons
(e.g., the Cordillera Blanca Batholith). The Incaic Fold and Thrust belt is located to the east of the Coastal
batholith, extending to the Cordillera Oriental, and is the locus of several compressive pulses, the more significant of which were in the late
Paleocene (59 to 55 Ma); middle Eocene (43 to 42 Ma); Oligocene (30 to 27 Ma); Earliest Miocene (~22 Ma); Mid Miocene (~17 to 15 Ma); and
several others in the late Miocene (Benavides-Cáceres, 1999).
The sub-Andean Fold and Thrust belt, which was formed in the late Miocene, is located to the east of the Cordillera Oriental horst, overlapping the
western margin of the Eastern Foreland Basin, which hosts an eastward tapering sedimentary section that laps onto the Amazonian craton to the
NE and SE, and interfingers with the Solimoes Basin sequence to the east (Benavides-Cáceres, 1999).
The development of the Peruvian Andes took place as
three major cycles, during the Precambrian, Palaeozoic
to Early Triassic and from the Late Triassic to present.
The geologic and tectonic history of the orogen may be
summarised as follows:
• Permo-Carboniferous and Lower Triassic - The Peruvian Andes are underlain by a dissected and deformed platformal sequence of Permo-
Carboniferous and Lower Triassic rocks, lapping onto the Amazonian craton to the east, and unconformably overlying the lower to middle
Palaeozoic basement. This succession belongs to the Mid-Devonian to Late Permian/early Triassic, predominantly extensional Gondwana
Tectonic Cycle, and commenced with the Carboniferous Tarma-Copacabana sequence, largely composed of sandstones, mudstones and
limestones, deposited in a mosaic of intense intracontinental rift basins and horsts controlled and linked by strike-slip fault zones that have 'Andean
trends' (Rosas et al., 2007).
According to Rosas et al. (2007), Permo-Carboniferous fault-controlled subsidence diminished and ceased by the Late Permian, followed by
widespread regional subsidence and a broad epeiric sea into which the argillaceous, organic-rich Ene Formation was deposited as a regional
blanket.
This was followed by a hiatus related to the late Permian to early Triassic Juruá orogeny, which was accompanied by synkinematic calc-alkaline
granodiorites and granites, and alkaline to peralkaline comendites, basalts and syenites in the Cordillera Oriental, with an age range of 255 to 236
Ma (Rb/Sr, K/Ar; Lancelot et al., 1978; Dalmayrac et al., 1980; Gunnesch et al., 1990; Soler, 1991).
In other references (e.g., Newell et al., 1953; INGEMMET, 2013) the upper Palaeozoic succession is divided into the Lower Carboniferous Ambo
Group, which disconformably overlies the Excelsior Group, and is dominantly composed of sandstone with thin black shales and coal, and exceeds
850 m in thickness. In far northwestern Peru, in the Amotape Mountains sequence that continues across the border into Ecuador, the equivalent
succession is the Chaleco de Paño Formation, composed of 1200 m of greenish-grey quartzites, sandstones, siltstones and slates (Martinez,
1970). These sequences are respectively disconformably overlain by the Upper Carboniferous Tarma Group thin limestones and black shale that is
up to 2100 m thick in central Peru, and the coarser Cerro Prieto Formation in NW Peru, comprising >1600 m of interbedded dark grey, partly
marly shale, siltstone, crossbedded and graded sandstones, quartzites and rare limestones (Martinez, 1970). These sequences are, in turn,
disconformably to discordantly overlain by the ~1900 m thick Lower Permian Copacabana Group massive limestone and black shales in central
Peru. These rocks are discordantly followed by the Permo-Triassic Mitu Group as described below, which is variously regarded as Late Permian
(e.g., INGEMMET, 2013) or Lower Triassic (e.g., Rosas et al., 2007).
• Middle Triassic to Earliest Cretaceous - Following and during the Juruá orogeny, renewed deposition commenced as a prelude to the main
extensional regime, resulting in the latest Permian to middle Triassic Mitu Group, which was not involved in the Juruá orogeny, and unconformably
overlies deformed Ene Formation (Jaillard et al., 1990; Rosas et al., 2007). It was deposited in a complex of rift basins, the most significant of which
was the Mitu graben, largely coinciding with the core of the current Cordillera Oriental. This main graben was separated from a secondary belt of
grabens largely along the present coastal plain and narrow continental shelf by the major Divisoria horst. The Mitu Group comprises as much as
3000 m of continental clastic molassic sediments/red beds, volcaniclastic rocks and alkaline volcanic rocks. Master faults along both the basin axis
and margins, were the pathways for mantle-derived continental Mitu volcanism, mainly tholeiitic or alkaline basalts accounting for up to 20% of the
sequence, that were accompanied and followed by the intrusion of a voluminous belt of crustally derived Permo-Triassic granodioritic to
monzogranitic plutons, largely along the present Eastern Cordillera (Rosas et al., 2007; Panca, 2009).
During the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic, Mariana-style subduction of the Farallon plate is interpreted to have commenced (Benavides-Caceres,
1999), well to the west of the continent, producing intra-oceanic island-arc magmatism in the west and back-arc extension on the continental margin
(Longo, 2005 and references cited therein). Initiation of this subduction marked the commencement of the Andean Tectonic Cycle in Peru
(Cobbing et al., 1981; Megard, 1984), which has persisted for ~200 m.y. (Petford and Atherton, 1995), punctuated by the split of the Farallon plate
into the Nazca and Cocos plates in the late Oligocene to early Miocene. During much of the Mesozoic, the broad back-arc region between the
inferred offshore subduction system and the Amazonian craton, was dominated by extensional tectonics that resulted in belts of differential
subsidence and uplift bounded by major longitudinal crustal faults, for the most part inherited from the Palaeozoic. In general, the Mesozoic marine
sequences deposited during this period included rift and shelf sequences, with subduction-related volcanic facies along their western extremeties
(Benavides-Caceres, 1999). Crustal thickening in the overriding plate only started in the Upper Cretaceous, when the magmatic arc migrated
onshore, whereas Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous times have essentially been marked by back-arc extension (e.g., Mpodozis and Ramos, 1989;
Jaillard and Soler, 1996).
The Mitu Group sequence is overlain across a contact that varies from a paraconformity to angular unconformity, by the three part sag phase
successions of the 1000 km long by >250 km wide, late Triassic and early Jurassic carbonate rich Pucará Basin (Rosas et al., 2004). This basin
was related to transtensional subsidence, and comprised: a). the Norian to Rhaetian Chambará Formation, dolomite and subordinate limestone;
b). the upper Rhaetian to Sinemurian Aramachay Formation, bituminous calcareous shales, indicating a deepening underfilled basin; and c). the
upper Sinemurian to Toarcian Condorsinga Formation that caps the succession, and is again dominated by shallower-water limestones, which are
locally sandy, with evaporites. This sequence contains intercalated intraplate basaltic to andesitic volcanic rocks (Rosas et al., 2004). This NNW-
SSE basin lapped onto the Amazon Craton, or interfingered with the Solimoes basin to the east, and is divided into four main geotectonic zones:
i). the Eastern Foreland Basin, which areally corresponds to the current sub-Andean fold belt and eastern or Ene-Madre de Dios foreland basin,
and was the site of epicontinental evaporite and pelitic carbonate deposition;
ii). the Marañón Arch, a basement horst, or belt of lesser subsidence, generally corresponding to the present Cordillera Oriental, cored by
Proterozoic to Palaeozoic basement, as described above. This arch began to form as a horst within the main Mitu graben and provided a base for
the subsequent shallow water carbonate platform of the Pucará Group;
iii). the Western Platform, mostly covered by shallow-water marine, carbonate shelf sedimentary rocks of the Pucará Group. The Pucará
transgression, which had commenced in northern Peru by the Late Triassic (Middle Norian), had reached central Peru in the Late Norian. Continued
extensional conditions are also indicated by the local eruption of within-plate volcanic rocks, particularly near the western boundary of the platform
(Rosas, 1994; Benavides-Caceres, 1999);
iv). the Divisoria Arch/horst of coastal Peru, also a belt of lesser subsidence or emergence which forms the western margin of the Western
platform (and Pucará Basin), and was inherited from Permian time. It exposes a lower to middle Palaeozoic sequence, with Mesozoic to Cenozoic
intrusions, and is separated from the Western platform by a major NW to NNW sinistral shear zone that passes just to the east of Cajamarca and
Yanacocha. To the north, as it approaches the Huancabamba deflection, it diminishes, and the Western platform sequence grades directly into the
Western volcanic belt (Rosas et al., 2004; Benavides-Caceres, 1999; Jaillard et al., 1990; Longo et al., 2010).
v). the Western Volcanic Belt - characterised by mid to late Jurassic volcanism in northern coastal Peru, where 1000 to 3000 m of subaerial
basaltic andesitic to dacitic lava flows and pyroclastic beds, the Colán Formation, were deposited to the west of the Marañón arch and north of the
latitude through Cajamarca (Rosas et al., 2004; Jaillard et al., 1990; Longo et al., 2010). This volcanic sequence is interpreted to represent the
southern continuation of the Jurassic magmatic suite of the Cordillera Real and Condor/Sub-Andean Cordillera to the north in Ecuador, which
includes the Misahualli Volcanic Complex and the composite Zamora batholith. However, there are no significant intrusives associated with the
Colán Formation in Peru. The structural grain of the Colán Formation does reflect the trend of the Peruvian Andes south of the Huancabamba
Deflection, occurring as a series of en echelon, NNW elongated exposures, distributed along the same projected SSW trend as in Ecuador,
continuing to the coastline, and not reappearing again north of the Abancay Deflection in the south (Romeuf et al., 1995).
The early Middle Jurassic Vicusian orogeny, which affected both Ecuador and Peru, resulted in the sub-Andean fault system being particularly
active, with the Marañón arch on its immediate western margin experiencing considerable uplift and erosion. This event also caused a regression,
interrupting the carbonate sedimentation of the Pucará Group with a major unconformity and stratigraphic break.
As a consequence of this regression, and the extensional tectonics that characterised the Late Jurassic, the Eastern basin, the Marañón arch and
the Huancabamba deflection region were emergent, and with inversion of the Divisoria arch, subsidence was limited to the Western Platform.
Deposition on the platform passed from deltaic to paralic siliciclastic sedimentary rocks along the Western platform (Yura and Oyón Groups),
passing westward through a slope facies into deeper water facies of the 'Western Trough', to subduction related volcanic rocks along the marginal
volcanic arc.
Following the Vicusian orogeny, a new northward and eastward progressing shallow transgression commenced in the late Middle Jurassic
(Callovian) in western Peru, reaching northern Peru in the Late Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous as the Chicama Group, and is characterised by
predominantly siliciclastic rocks, which occur further east as the Sarayaquillo Formation, particularly in the Eastern foreland basin where red-bed
clastics dominate. During this transgression, subduction-related volcanism continued along the marginal volcanic arc, with intense crustal
attenuation in the western trough.
The Vicusian orogeny had overlapped the deposition of the Colán Formation volcanic sequence which rests unconformably on the Pucará
carbonates of the Western platform (Loughman and Hallam, 1982) and is covered by the siliciclastic of the Sarayaquillo Formation. Subsequent to
this orogenic event, the Colán Formation volcanic island arc in northern Peru and its continuation in Ecuador became a continental magmatic arc,
accompanied by major batholithic intrusions in the inner part of the orogen in Ecuador, e.g., the Zamora Batholith (Benavides-Caceres, 1999).
The Late Jurassic transgression, was followed by emergence in the earliest Cretaceous (Berriasian) of almost all of Peru, which produced the
Great Pre-Cretaceous unconformity (Benavides-Caceres, 1999).
• Late Eocene to Earliest Miocene - Following the erosional phase represented by the Incaic II unconformity, a new cycle comprising uplift,
extensional tectonics, and magmatic activity, extended from ~42 to 23 Ma as the Lower Calipuy Volcanic Sequence (known as the Tacaza
Volcanic Sequence in southern Peru). This sequence is at least 1500 m thick, with a maximum outcrop width of ~150 km in southeastern Peru,
narrowing abruptly to ~40 km after crossing the Abancay deflection into the Peruvian Andes. From there, it largely follows the Cordillera Occidental
and its eastern slopes, practically to the Ecuadorian border. It is predominantly composed of porphyritic andesite, basalt, dacite, rhyodacite and
rhyolite flows, agglomerates, tuffs and welded ignimbrites, intercalated with as much as 50% terrestrial volcaniclastic rocks, red and purple
conglomerates and sandstones. Different sections of the sequence are dominated by either lavas, pyroclastic or sedimentary rocks. Locally it
includes coarse basal conglomerates that were deposited in fault troughs over an irregular surface. In the south, the Tacaza/Calipuy Volcanic
Sequence has been divided into the Late Eocene to Earliest Miocene Lower Calipuy Group and the Early Miocene Upper Calipuy Group that
followed the Incaic IV orogenic pulse. However, Benavides-Caceres (1999) notes that in 1999, the two had largely not been differentiated in
mapping in central and northern Peru. Hence the extent of each group individually is uncertain.
In the Cajamarca Mineral Belt, which extends from just to the south of Cajamarca in northern Peru to the Ecuador border, and corresponds to the
northern Peruvian volcanic belt, the Lower Calipuy Formation continued as a sequence of mostly andesitic tuffs with massive bands of whitish grey
rhyolite, the Porculla Formation, overlain by siliceous ash-flow, crystal and ignimbritic tuffs and dacitic breccia, of the 39 to 35 Ma Huambos
Formation (Noble et al., 1990; Longo et al., 2010; Knight Piésold, 2010). Diorite stocks that crop out to the north of Cajamarca, spanning 4 m.y. in
the middle Eocene, may be roots of stratovolcanoes that erupted these volcanic rocks.
In addition, during the late Eocene to Oligocene, two parallel belts of extensional fore-arc grabens/basins were formed to the west of the volcanic
arc, separated by a narrow horst that broadly corresponds to the Albian Paracas arch (Benavides-Caceres, 1999).
Part of the Oligocene is characterised by volcanic quiescence throughout much of Peru, which may represent the 30 and 27 Ma Incaic III orogenic
pulse (see below). Prior to this magmatic lull, a series of intrusive bodies were emplaced along the highest parts of the Cordillera Occidental in
central and northern Peru from the middle Eocene to middle Oligocene, between 39 and 29 Ma. Many of these intrusions were subvolcanic plutons
and stocks that diapirically pierced and domed the volcanic country rocks and the underlying Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, and are associated with
major faults (Benavides-Caceres, 1999).
During the late Eocene to Oligocene, a system of narrow fault controlled, probably transtensional, intermontane basins were developed along the
eastern flank of the lower Calipuy volcanic arc, filled by very thick sequences of continental, largely volcaniclastic, red beds, e.g., the Pocobamba
Formation, in central Peru, dated at ~39 to 36 Ma (Noble et al., 1979).
Following the inferred Incaic III break, volcanism again flared throughout the central Andes, to form the upper part of the Lower Calipuy Group,
which mainly comprises andesitic and dacitic flows, intermediate to acid pyroclastic rocks, rhyolitic tuffs and some sedimentary intercalations in the
south (Noble et al., 1990; McKee and Noble 1982).
During the same period, there was further magmatic activity from the late Oligocene to the earliest Miocene. This activity was located in the
Cordillera Oriental, to the east of both the main volcanic arc and the belt of intermontane basins, and largely south of the Abancay deflection, but did
extend northward into the southern Peruvian Andes. It occurred as a series of small plutons and dykes of peraluminous monzogranites, alkaline
intrusions and volcanic rocks with felsic compositions or shoshonitic affinities that were intercalated with Oligocene to lower Miocene basinal
sequences (Bonhomme et al., 1985; Laubacher et al., 1988; Cheilletz et al., 1992; Sandeman et al., 1995). These occurrences have been referred
to as volcanic rocks of the eastern province (Audebaud and Amosse, 1981), the inner arc domain (Clark et al., 1983a), or the back arc (Francis and
Hawkesworth, 1994).
Also during this late Oligocene to the earliest Miocene interval, the string of intermontane basins that had developed between the eastern flank of
the magmatic arc and the Marañón arch was reactivated and filled by thick red beds (e.g., the upper Pocobamba Formation). This latter activity was
mainly west of the Marañón arch, which remained elevated, and was the source of sediment deposited as molasse in the eastern foreland basin,
east of the sub-Andean fault system (Benavides-Caceres, 1999).
Similarly, following a break in sedimentation and an unconformity, late Oligocene to earliest Miocene deposition re-commenced in the fore-arc
grabens/basins.
From the Eocene to the middle Oligocene, deposition in the Eastern Basin formed a brackish marine unit of grey shales and carbonates that
includes characteristic tuffaceous beds. These were overlain by late Oligocene red and brown pelitic marls and clays, which were interrupted by the
compressive Incaic IV event. Subsequently, the basin was markedly subsident and accumulated a great thickness of upward-coarsening coarse
Miocene sediments derived from the rising Cordillera (Benavides-Caceres, 1999).
• Early Miocene - Following the Incaic IV orogenic pulse, renewal of activity within the magmatic arc produced the Upper Calipuy and Tacaza
Sequence/Groups in northern and southern Peru respectively. These sequences covered all of the Western Cordillera on both sides of the
Abancay deflection, and extended into the adjacent Altiplano in the south. The width of the arc was considerably expanded and volcanic detritus
extended into the inner fore-arc basins to the west. The main arc was predominantly composed of intermediate, calc-alkaline, extrusive and
subvolcanic magmatism and along its western margin included significant developments of silicic ignimbritic facies (Benavides-Caceres, 1999).
Over much of the western flank of the Cordillera Occidental, the upper Calipuy Sequence is represented by a distinctive sequence of westward
thinning rhyodacitic ignimbrites that are up to 1000 m thick. In northern Peru, between Cajamarca and the Ecuador border, this sequence is
represented in part by the Chala Sequence (Noble et al., 1990), which is, in turn, part of the Upper Calipuy Group. The Chala Sequence
commences with conglomerates and ~23.2 Ma volcaniclastic rocks overlying an angular unconformity. These rocks, include up to 415 m of coarsely
porphyritic hornblende and hornblende-pyroxene andesites that are divided in two overlapping sequences, the Tual and Chaupiloma lahars, that
are separated by a disconformity. Both are dominated by lahar and hyper-concentrated flow deposits. The Tual andesite, which is restricted to the
SW and west of the Cajamarca district, contains poorly reworked epiclastic rocks, pumice rich debris-flow and lahar deposits, as well as
volcaniclastic sandstones and pebble conglomerates, and has been dated at 19.53±0.13 Ma (Longo et al., 2010). The Chaupiloma lahars, dated at
15.90±0.18 Ma and mainly found in the NE part of the district, are characterised by thick grey lahar deposits of hornblende-pyroxene andesite,
interbedded with rare ash-fall tephra and volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks from pebble conglomerates to laminated siltstone. These ages suggest
there may have been a significant time gap between the two units (Longo et al., 2010).
In northern Peru, the gap in the arc to the south of the Cajamarca lineament was maintained.
Coeval intrusions are found in both central and northern Peru, including the dioritic to granodioritic Surco pluton in central Peru, dated at 21.0 and
20.7 Ma (U/Pb; Mukasa, 1984). In northern Peru, Early Miocene granitoid stocks are known to the north of Cajamarca, distributed over a ~5 m.y.
interval from 20.8 to 15.9 Ma, including stocks at Misacocha (20.8 Ma; Llosa et al, 1999), the dioritic complex at Michiquillay (20.02 to 19.8 Ma;
Noble et al, 2004; Davies and Williams, 2005), El Galeno/Amaro (17.3; Thompson, 2002).
East of the main Upper Calipuy/Tacaza magmatic belt, back-arc activity is represented by the alkaline stocks of Oxapampa in central Peru, dated
at between 21.0±1.0 Ma (Tambo Maria syenite porphyry stock) and 19.1±1.0 to 17.4±0.6 Ma (whole rock and plagioclase respectively; all K/Ar;
Soler, 1991).
Distribution of Mineralisation
Porphyry style mineralisation in the Peruvian Andes, between the Huancabamba and Abancay 'deflections', is mainly distributed along the eastern
margin of the Cordillera Occidental. Associated porphyry stocks intrude either Tertiary volcanic and/or Cretaceous sedimentary rocks, frequently
carbonates, either within the eastern edge of the volcanic arc, or up to 50 km to the east. The greatest density of deposits is in the Cajamarca
Mineral Belt between the Ecuadorian border and the NE-SW Cajamarca Lineament that defines SE margin of the tertiary arc, prior to a 50 km gap
in the arc. Within the same mineral belt, the greatest density is within the southeastern 100 km of this part of the arc.
• Cajamarca Mineral Belt, which occupies the northern Peruvian volcanic belt, includes the giant Yanacocha complex of deposits, an extensive
mineral system that spans the range of ore styles form the deeper Kupfertal porphyry Cu-Mo mineralisation, passing up into associated high
sulphidation lithocap Cu-Au and epithermal Au ores of the main Yanacocha deposits. The upper 50 to 300 m of the system has been strongly
oxidised. Sections have been scoured and physically transported by Pleistocene glaciers, and partially reworked, to form the La Quinua deposits.
The Yanacocha group of deposits were formed between 13.5 and 8.2 Ma, and define an ~18 x 6 km corridor aligned along the 50 to 60° trending
Chicama-Yanacocha trans-orogen structure, immediately to the north of, and parallel to, the Cajamarca lineament which marks the start of the
volcanic gap in the Tertiary arc.
To the east of Yanacocha, on the eastern margin of the preserved arc, there are a group of Miocene porphyry deposits, emplaced between 20 and
10 Ma, distributed over a 50 x 10 km, NW-SE elongated zone that includes: Michiquillay (20.0 to 19.8 Ma), El Galeno (17.5 to 16.5 Ma), Minas
Conga (Chailhuagón, Perol and Amaro; 15.8 to 15.6 Ma), Cerro Corona (14.3 to 10.5 Ma), and the Tantahuatay (13.3 to 8.3 Ma) high
sulphidation Au-Ag deposit, The smaller La Zanja (15.6 to 11.9 Ma) high sulphidation gold deposit (24 Mt @ 0.8 g/t Au; Cardozo and Bustamante,
2013) is 30 km to the SW of Tantahuatay, and NW of the centre of Yanacocha. A further 60 km NW along the same trend is the La Granja (14 to 10
Ma) deposit, followed some 35 km further NW by Cañariaco (Cañariaco Norte, Cañariaco Sur and Quebrada Verde; 17.9 to 15.8 Ma) and Rio
Blanco (16 Ma), still further to the NW close to the Ecuadorian border. Across the border ~100 km to the NNW in southern Ecuador there is
another cluster of Porphyry Cu deposits of the same age (see the North Andes - Panama Cu-Au Province in Ecuador record). The porphyry
deposits of the Cajamarca Mineral Belt incorporates two geochemically distinct groups along this trend namely: i). porphyry Cu-Mo±Au deposits
which include La Granja, Michiquillay, El Galeno, Cañariaco and Rio Blanco; and ii). porphyry Cu-Au deposits which include Cerro Corona, Minas
Conga and La Carpa.
• Central Peru Mineral Belt, which extends from the northern tip of the Tertiary volcanic arc where it resumes after the 50 km break south
Cajamarca, and extends south to the Abancay 'deflection'. This belt, which is ~120 km wide and 700 km long, contains a series of clusters of
porphyry Cu±Au±Mo±Zn, polymetallic porphyry/skarn, epithermal Au±Ag, and Cordilleran epithermal polymetallic deposits. Almost all are directly
related to Miocene magmatism and represent different erosional levels and temporal phases of large intrusive-related hydrothermal regimes.
The northern-most cluster includes the Quiruvilca (middle Miocene) Cordilleran epithermal polymetallic Pb-Cu-Zn-Ag deposit within the Tertiary
volcanic arc. Approximately 12 km ENE of Quiruvilca, the Lagunas Norte (17.0±0.22 Ma) high-sulphidation epithermal Au deposit is hosted by an
inlier of Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous basement within the Tertiary volcanic arc. Next, some 10 km further to the ENE is the La Arena (~25 to
24 Ma) high-sulphidation epithermal Au telescoped onto a porphyry Cu-Au deposit on the northeastern margin of the preserved volcanic arc, the
oldest of the porphyry systems in the Peruvian Andes. Approximately 30 km to the NNW, some 15 to 25 km to the NE of the the Tertiary volcanic
arc, the Shahuindo (~16 Ma) intermediate sulphidation Au deposit overprints early high sulphidation mineralisation, associated with Miocene
igneous intrusion within Mesozoic basement. The Magistral (15.3 to 14.6 Ma) porphyry-skarn Cu-Mo deposit is located ~50 km SE of La Arena,
associated with Miocene intrusion into carbonate rich Cretaceous basement, ~30 km east of the preserved exposures of the main volcanic arc.
The next significant cluster of deposits is ~200 km SSE of Quiruvilca, and includes the Pierina (~14.9 Ma) high sulphidation epithermal Au deposit,
~10 km to the north of Huaraz, deposited within Miocene volcanic rocks of the main Tertiary volcanic arc. A group of smaller mines and the Soledad
prospect are located in a similar setting, 20 km south of Huaraz. The Hilarion Cordilleran epithermal polymetallic deposit, 55 km SSE of Huaraz,
contains 52 Mt @ 4.53% Zn, 0.70% Pb, just to the east of the Tertiary volcanic arc. The other main deposit in this 'cluster' is the Antamina (~9.8 Ma)
porphyry/skarn Cu-Mo-Zn deposit, located ~30 km to the east of the main Tertiary magmatic arc and 50 km east of Huaraz.
Most of the previous deposits are located on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera Occidental. However, the next cluster is located ~175 km SE of
Huaraz, on the western slopes of the Cordillera Oriental, further from the current Peru Trench, and is almost exclusively composed of Cordilleran
epithermal polymetallic Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag deposits, with some associated high sulphidation epithermal gold mineralisation. The key deposits include
Cerro de Pasco (15.4 to 15.1 Ma), the Colquijirca District (10.8 to 10.6 Ma polymetallic ores overprinting ~11.9 to 11.1 Ma high-sulphidation Au-Ag
mineralisation) group of deposits, 8 km south of Cerro de Pasco, the Huaron (Miocene?) deposit, 37 km SSW of Cerro de Pasco, and the
Atacocha and El Porvenir (mid-Miocene?) deposits, 10 km north of Cerro de Pasco.
Another significant cluster is located 100 km south of Cerro de Pasco, and 265 km SSE of Huaraz, on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera
Occidental, in the Morococha district (~7 Ma Toromocho porphyry Cu-Mo and marginally younger surrounding Morococha Cordilleran epithermal
polymetallic vein and manto replacement Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag deposits) on the eastern margin of the Tertiary volcanic arc. The Casapalca or Yauliyacu
polymetallic Cu-Pb-Zn-Ag vein cluster, which has produced >6100 t of Ag over the last 100 years, is located ~12 km WSW of Morococha.
The polymetallic Yauricocha Cu-Au-Ag-Zn-Pb deposit is located ~165 km to the SSE of Morococha, close to Abancay Deflection. It dominantly
comprises high-temperature, pipe-like, limestone replacement sulphide bodies containing massive pyrite with enargite, bornite, chalcopyrite, galena
and sphalerite, located in >10 separate bodies over an interval of ~9 km along the contact with a granodiorite mass. The near-vertical intrusions of
Miocene granodiorite are fringed by an aureole of calc-silicate alteration within the intruded Middle Cretaceous Jumasha Formation limestone and
Celendín Formation chert, marl and lutite. NI 43-101 compliant mineral resources in 2015 (SRK, 2015) were measured + indicated resources -
7.871 Mt @ 61 g/t Ag, 0.67 g/t Au, 1.12% Cu, 0.94% Pb, 2.70% Zn, plus inferred resources of 3.745 Mt @ 49 g/t Ag, 0.53 g/t Au, 1.33% Cu, 0.58%
Pb, 1.86% Zn.
The most recent source geological information used to prepare this summary was dated: 2010.
This description is a summary from published sources, the chief of which are listed below.
© Copyright Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd. Unauthorised copying, reproduction, storage or dissemination prohibited.
References & Additional Information
References to this deposit in the PGC Literature Collection:
Benavides-Caceres, V., 1999 - Orogenic Evolution of the Peruvian Andes: The Andean Cycle: in Society of Economic Geologists, Denver,
Special Publication No. 7 pp. 61-107.
Chew, D.M., Cardona, A. and Miskovic, A., 2010 - Tectonic evolution of western Amazonia from the assembly of Rodinia to its break-up:
in International Geology Review v.53, pp. 1280-1296.
Chew, D.M., Kosler, J., Whitehouse, M.J., Gutjahr, M., Spikings, R.A. and Miskovic, A., 2007 - U-Pb geochronologic evidence for the evolution
of the Gondwanan margin of the north-central Andes: in GSA Bulletin v.119, pp. 697–711.
Ramos, V.A., 2008 - The Basement of the Central Andes: The Arequipa and Related Terranes: in Annual Review of Earth and Planetary
Sciences v.36, pp. 289-324
Rosas, S., Fontbote, L. and Tankard, A., 2007 - Tectonic evolution and paleogeography of the Mesozoic Pucara Basin, central Peru: in J. of
South American Earth Sciences v.24, pp. 1-24.
Tour photo albums Iron oxide copper-gold series
What's new
Ore deposit database Super-porphyry series
Site map
Conferences Porhyry & Hydrothermal Cu-Au
Experience Ore deposit literature