Programa Magíster en Geología Económica

Mención Exploración Minera

INCLUSIONES FLUIDAS
TÉCNICAS Y APLICACIÓN DE INCLUSIONES FLUIDAS

Shoji KOJIMA
(Universidad Católica del Norte)
 Constituyentes notados en inclusiones fluidas

<fases fluidas>
 CO2, CO, H2, N2, H2S, SO2, Ar, He
 Algunos hidrocarburos y petróleos (ej., CH4, C2H4, C2H6, C3H8)
<fases sólidas>
 NaCl*, KCl*, CaCl2*, MgCl2*, Fe-cloruros*
 CaSO4*, CaF2, nahcolita (NaHCO3)*, carbonatos (CaCO3, Ca-Mg
carbonates)*
 FeS2, CuFeS2, Fe2O3, Fe3O4
 muscovita (fengita), albita, dawsonita (NaAl(CO3)(OH)2)
 amarantita (FeSO4(OH)·3H2O), elpasonita (K2NaAlF6), cryolita (Na3AlF6)

Los componentes orgánicos se observan en los depósitos de bajas

temperatures como tipo Misisipi Valley y depósitos uraníferos tipo
discordancia.
* Minerales sales como cristales hijos.
Dawsonite-bearing fluid inclusion (A) in vein quartz of the Oriental mine,
California (Coveney and Kelly, 1971) and chalcopyrite-bearing fluid inclusions
of San Judas pipe, Mexico (Sawkins and Scherkenbach, 1981).
 Optical characteristics for common daughter salts
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mineral Composition Crystal system Common habit Birefringence
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Halite NaCl Cubic Octahedral cube Isotropic
Sylvite KCl Cubic Rounded cube Isotropic
Anhydrite CaSO4 Orthorhombic Prismatic Low
Nahcolite NaHCO3 Orthorhombic Tabular Very high
Carbonates (Ca, Mg)CO3 Trigonal Rhombohedral Very high
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brown (1998)
Formational process of necking down (coalescence, estrangulamiento).
P-T-X diagram of H2O showing the liquid-vapor curve and isochores for various densities of fluid
inclusions. The inset shows an expanded view of the area in the vicinity of the triple point of H2O.
critical point at 374°C, 221 bars.
Serial photographs of homogenization and ice-melting of an inclusion (Roedder, 1972)
Temperature-density diagram of H2O (Roedder, 1984).
 ______ ___

________
_
P-T projection of the high-salinity portion of the NaCl-H2O system. The line with a
valor indicates L-V curves separating L and L+V fiellds of the valued salinity. If a
hypersaline inclusion homogenize by vapor disappearance, the pressure condition
can be estimated (Bodnar et al., 1985)
 Pressure correction

The local pressure at the site of

inclusion trapped is actually
hydrostatic in any case,
because it is a fluid pressure.
However, the pressure is
probably between lithostatic and
hydrostatic limits in most natural
situations, and actual values in
nature may span a considerably
wider range at both ends.

Even within this range

numerous factors may affect the
specific pressure, such as
brittle-ductile transition related
to formation depth and local
temperature.
Schematic diagram showing range of possible pressure conditions on a fluid
inclusion in a crystal growing freely in a fracture-filling system (Roedder, 1984).
T-X diagram of the NaCl-H2O system (after Roedder, 1962, Potter et al., 1978, Bodnar, 1993).
 Eutectic melting temperatures
for selected salt systems

----------------------------------------------------
System Eutectic
point (°C)
----------------------------------------------------
H2O-NaCl-CaCl2-MgCl2 -57
H2O-NaCl-CaCl2 -52
H2O-CaCl2 -49.5
H2O-FeCl 2 -35
H2O-MgCl2 -33.6
H2O-NaCl-KCl -23
H2O-NaCl -21.2
H2O-KCl -10.6
----------------------------------------------------

From Freezing temperature and percent salt curve

Shepherd et al. (1985), Brown (1998) relations for common chloride systems
Serial photographs of homogenization and ice-melting of an inclusion (Roedder, 1972)
0
CO2-rich inclusions (Pegmatite, W-rich hydrothermal deposits, Archean
orogenic and Carlin-type Au deposits, porphyry copper, IOCG).
CO2 vapor bubble (14) condenses to form a liquid CO2 around the vapor
when cooled (15). With further cooling the clathrate compound
(CO25¾H2O) forms with the reaction between CO2 and water (16)
Scale bar is 25 μm in all photographs.
Sterner and Bodnar (1984)
Importances of boiling in mineral
precipitation

Evidence of boiling in fluid inclusions

Coexistence of liquid (+solids)-rich
and vapor-rich inclusions.
Effects of adiabatic isoenthalpic boiling

(1) Temperature fall by the vapor

separation.
(2) Increase of pH by separation of
volatiles.

Examples:

<High-sulfidation Au>
4AuCl2 ‫ ־‬+ 2H2O = 4Au + 8Cl ‫־‬+ 4H+
+ O2
<Low-sulfidation Au>
4Au(HS)2 ‫ ־‬+ 4H+ + 2H2O = 4Au +
8H2S + O2.
APLICACIONES DE INCLUSIONES FLUIDAS EN
METALOGENESIS Y EXPLORACIÓN MINERA

Pórfidos de Cu-Au
Skarn
Manto
Kuroko
Types of fluid
inclusions occurring in
North American
porphyry copper
deposits

Nash (1976)
Photomicrographs of doubly polished thin section of stockwork veinlet quartz from
the Santo Tomas II porphyry Cu-Au deposit, Philippines:

Left: polyphase hypersaline inclusions having red, transparent hematite flake (hm)
in addition to halite (ha), opaque mineral (op), vapor (v) and interstitial brine.
Right: euhedral negative crystal-shaped gaseous inclusions associated with
hematite flake (hm) in addition to vapor (v) and interstitial brine.
Imai (2001)
 Fluid inclusion data of some subaerial ore deposits
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type and deposit Mineral used Temperature Salinity Reference
(°C) (NaCl wt%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pegmatite allanite, monzanite 540 – 690 < 84 1, 2
tantaltite, columbite
uraninite, quartz
Porphyry Molybdenum
(Henderson, Endako) quartz 600 – 310 28 - 65 3, 4, 5
Porrphyry Gold
Porguera (PNG) quartz 400 – 450 30 – 62 6
Marte-Lobo quartz 300 – 375 < 44 7, 8
Refugio quartz 325 – 675 3 – 84 9, 10
IOCG
Punta del Cobre calcite 78 – 232 29 – 34 11, 12
Candelaria quartz, calcite 328 – 470 high 12
Mantoverde quartz 180 – 550 3.4 – 56 13, 14, 15
calcite 85 – 360 1 – 40.2 13, 14, 15
Deseada quartz 401 – 560 39 – 68 16
Toldo-Velarde
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: Kozlowski and Karwowski (1973), 2: Kosukhin (1977), 3: Dawson (1972), 4: Bloom (1981), 5. Seedorff
and Einaudi (2004), 6: Richards and Kerrich (1993), 7: Vila and Sillitoe (1991), 8: Campos (1997), 9: Collao
et al. (1997), Muntean and Einaudi (2000), 11: Marschik and Fontnoté (2001), 12: Marschik et al. (1997),
13: Vila et al. (1996), 14: Benavides et al. (2007), 15: Rieger et al. (2012), 16: Trista and Kojima (2003).
Relations between formation depth and Cu, Au and Mo (Murakami et al., 2010).
 Fluid inclusions trapping
both vapor and liquid phases
Concentration in
VAPOR
Brine

Vapor
Heinrich et al. (1999)

This example probably suggests

Selective migration of Cu and Au into vapor phase
during fluid boiling.
Problema: Zajacz et al. (2009);
Lerchbaumer and Audetat
(2012) sugieren que las
inclusiones fluidas no son
isoquimicos. Difusión de Cu
hacia dentro de inclusions de
vapor.
Cu transportado mayormente
como complejo clorurado.
Isothermal section of the NaCl-H2O system at 800°C showing the curve of the
miscibility gap and partition coefficients between vapor and brine (Dv/b) for gold
calculated from LA-ICP-MS gold concentrations determined by analyzing synthetic
coexisting inclusions. XNaCl is mole fracion of NaCl (modifed from Simon et al., 2005).
 A: high-P & low-T
boiling

→ Au-rich vapor

B: low-P & high-T

A boiling
•− − − − −•
→ Au-rich liquid
B
• − − − − − − − − − − − − −• This difference could
be an essential factor
to control the Cu/Au
ratio of porphyry-style
deposits.

Isothermal projection of the NaCl-H2O system and fluid composition s of two exsolved
phases (Bodnar et al., 1985).
A summary of primary fluid inclusion data for principal Chilean manto-type deposits

Kojima et al. (2009)

Schematic section showing thermal structures of formation temperatures of normal Kuroko
deposits. The orebody distance is ~ 800 m.
Estimation of
minimum depth of
seawater at the
time of Kuroko
mineralization. P-
T diagram of
NaCl-CO2-H2O is
from Drummond
(1981).

Pisutha-Arnond and
Ohmoto (1983)
Various modern methods for chemical analyses of fluid inclusions
 Examples of cualitative analyses of solid crystals in fluid inclusions

SEM-EPMA PIXE

Characteristic X-ray spectra for polyphase

inclusions from Zaldívar porphyry deposit,
Northern Chile (Campos et al., 2000).
USO DE INCLUSIONES FLUIDAS COMO HERRAMIENTAS EN EXPLORACIÓN MINERA
Isothermal map of homogenization temperature of fluid inclusions, projected on
the section along the strike of Senzai vein, Oe mine (Mn-Cu-Pb-Zn), Japan.
Arrows show the direction of mineralizing fluid flow, x: Quartz-diorite body in
Green tuff formation (Okamura, 1980).
FACTORES EMPIRICOS DE DEPÓSITOS EPITERMALES DE
BAJA SULFIDACIÓN EN EXPLORACIÓN

• Las partes ricas en Au muestran 250-270°C en

temperaturas de homogenización, empírica-
mente.

• Los minerales de Ag – metal base está en las

partes más profundas de altas temperaturas (>
300°C).

• Hay una correlación en abundancias de

inclusión fluida entre cuarzo granítico y cuarzo
mineralizado (Rankin and Alderton, 1983)
 Porphyry copper targeting index (Bodnar, 1982)

• Halite-bearing inclusions
→ large amounts of chloride complexes as Cu-transporting species
• Vapor-rich inclusions
→ Temperature fall by boiling
• Chalcopyrite daughter minerals
→ The present fluid was carrying copper

Characteristic Relative abundance

Halite-bearing inclusions 0 → 12
Vapor-rich inclusions 0→ 6
Chalcopyrite daughter minerals 0→ 4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Porphyry copper targeting index = Σ