SEG 2004 Predictive Mineral Discovery Under Cover

The Cerro de Pasco–Colquijirca ‘super district’, Peru:

~2 m.y. of pulsed high-sulphidation hydrothermal
activity
R. Bendezú1,2, R. Baumgartner1, L. Fontboté1, L. Page3, Z. Pecskay4 and R. Spikings1
1
Department of Mineralogy, University of Geneva, Rue des Maraîchers 13, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
2
Sociedad Minera El Brocal S. A. Av. Faustino Sanchez Carrión 451-479, Lima 27, Peru
3
Department of Geology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62 Lund, Sweden
4
Institute of Nuclear Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Bemtér 18/C, H-4026 Debrecen, Hungary

Protracted hydrothermal activity lasting several million years and comprising two or more main pulses,
appears to be a common characteristic in the largest, well-dated porphyry-copper palaeo-systems (e.g.
Chuquicamata and El Teniente). Step-wise infa-red – CO2 laser 40Ar-39Ar analyses (this work), furnace 40Ar-
39
Ar analyses (Bendezú et al. 2003) and K-Ar radiometric ages of alunites from the polymetallic Cerro de
Pasco and Colquijirca districts, which form part of the Peruvian Miocene metallogenic belt, indicate that
long periods of hydrothermal activity existed in the shallow parts of these magmatic–hydrothermal systems.
The Cerro de Pasco and Colquijirca districts collectively form a large polymetallic (Ag-Zn-Cu-Au-Pb-Bi)
concentration, with 400 to 500 Mt (prior to mining) of nearly massive sulphide ores, including more than
two billion ounces of silver. The deposits are spatially related to two Miocene dacitic diatreme – dome
volcanic centers (Cerro de Pasco and Marcapunta, Fig.1), which intruded the Mesozoic Pucará and the
E-360 000 (76°16' W)

3 Km
N

Venenococha B
MINERALIZATION TYPE N-8820000 (10°40' S)
Cerro de Pasco
Cu-Zn-Pb-(Ag-Au-Bi)
Cordilleran base metal deposits
Santa Rosa
Au-(Ag) volcanic-hosted high
sulfidation epithermal

Yanamate
GEOLOGICAL UNITS

Dacite diatreme-dome complex (Miocene)

Pocobamba Formation (Eocene),

mainly limestones and marls
Goyllarizquizga Group (Cretaceous),
sandstones Colquijirca
Pucara Group (Upper Triassic-
Lower Jurassic), limestones and dolostones
Smelter
Mitu Group (Permian-Triasssic), sandstones

Excelsior Group (Devonian), phyllites

Marcapunta

Fault
San Gregorio
Thrust and
reverse faults

A Fold axis

Figure 1. General geology and main mineralisation types in the Cerro de Pasco and Colquijirca districts, central
part of the Peruvian Miocene metallogenic belt (Bendezú et al. 2003).
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 Eugen Stumpfl Memorial Symposium — Session Three

Cenozoic Pocobamba carbonate sequences. The districts host two main high-sulphidation ore types
(Baumgartner et al. 2003, Bendezú et al. 2003). The economically most important type mainly consists of
carbonate-hosted, strongly zoned sulphide-rich bodies of varied forms, some of which extend up to 3 km in
a N-S direction. At Cerro de Pasco, the bodies are mainly structurally aligned along steeply dipping faults
that are oriented in three main directions (N45°E, N130°E and N170°E). Local stratigraphic control also can
be significant. At Colquijirca, the ores are largely mantos and veins, although breccias are also locally
important. Zoning throughout the district consists of cores of pyrite-famatinite±zunyite (at Cerro de Pasco)
or pyrite-enargite±zunyite (at Colquijirca) with advanced argillic alteration minerals, mainly consisting of
quartz and alunite. The intermediate zone contains pyrite, fahlore, chalcopyrite and bismuth minerals with
alunite and/or hinsdalite (an alunite group mineral), kaolinite and quartz as alteration phases. External zones
consist of pyrite-sphalerite-galena and the same alteration minerals as in the intermediate zone. The outermost
zones are composed of haematite, magnetite and manganese-bearing siderite and ankerite. Such bodies,
where cores reflect high sulphidation and oxidation states, are characterised as Cordilleran base-metal (or
zoned base-metal) veins in the sense of Einaudi et al. (1977, 2003). Sphalerite displays low FeS contents,
which fluctuate in single grains between <1.5 and 0.1 mol % FeS, suggesting that the depositional conditions
were variable. At Cerro de Pasco, Cordilleran veins also occur in volcanic rocks from the diatreme, are
associated with well-developed mineralogical cores and, in contrast to the bodies in carbonate rocks, have
only a weakly developed external zone. The 40Ar-39Ar analyses indicate a short mineralisation event of about
500,000 years (10.94–10.56 ± 0.08 Ma), which was probably responsible for all of the dated Cordilleran
base-metal deposits of both the Cerro de Pasco and Colquijirca districts.
Field relationships and 40Ar-39Ar ages suggest that the other main high-sulphidation ore type predates the
polymetallic Cordilleran ores and lasted for approximately 1 m.y. (between 12.13–11.10 ± 0.06 Ma). This
ore type includes both the gold-(silver) high-sulphidation epithermal ores at Marcapunta and the nearly
barren alunite-bearing bodies such as that at Venenococha (Cerro de Pasco) dated at 12.13 ± 0.07 Ma. These
high-sulphidation ores are hosted exclusively within volcanic rocks and largely consist of irregular bodies
of vuggy silica with advanced argillic alteration halos, including abundant alunite and quartz. The bodies
include gold-bearing disseminated oxides and are typically sulphide poor. This deposit fits into the category
of gold-(silver) high-sulphidation epithermal mineralisation (Hedenquist 1987, Einaudi et al. 2003).
Yanamate
San Gregorio 11.5-11.1±0.1 Ma Marcapunta Cerro de Pasco
(projected)
12.13±0.07 Ma 10.94±0.10 Ma
10.83-10.56±0.08 Ma
12.39±0.06 Ma
A B
13±1 Ma

400 m

1 km
Common magmatic chamber at depth?

GEOLOGICAL UNITS

Quaternary deposits
MINERALIZATION TYPE
Pyroclastique rocks
Late Miocene-Pliocene? Cu-Zn-Pb-(Ag-Au-Bi)
Cordilleran base metal deposits
Calcareous siltstones
Au-(Ag) volcanic-hosted high
Breccia and pyroclastic rocks Miocene diatreme dome sulfidation epithermal
complex
Intrusives, mainly domes
oxidized Au-Ag-bearing
material of undefined protore
Calera Member
Eocene Pocobamba
Formation
Shuco Member 40Ar/39Ar on alunite

K/Ar on alunite
Pucará Member

Mitu Group

Excelsior Group

Figure 2: Schematic north-south longitudinal section of the Cerro de Pasco-Colquijirca districts across the main
orebodies (AB section in Fig.1). Selected alunite 40Ar-39Ar and K-Ar ages are shown (from Bendezú et al.
2003 and this work).
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SEG 2004 Predictive Mineral Discovery Under Cover

Radiometric ages suggest that an additional mineralisation event occurred prior to gold-(silver) high-
sulphidation epithermal mineralisation in both districts. An alunite sample from strongly oxidised gold-
silver-bearing material of undefined protore at Santa Rosa (Cerro de Pasco), yields a plateau age of 12.39 ±
0.06 Ma. At the zinc-lead San Gregorio deposit (southern Colquijirca), three K-Ar analyses yield ages of ca
13 ± 1 Ma (due to the very fine grain size of alunite, <10 µm, 40Ar-39Ar analysis could not be performed).
The combined plateau 40Ar-39Ar ages show that high-sulphidation hydrothermal activity was coeval in Cerro
de Pasco and Colquijirca (10 km apart) for almost 2 m.y. (Fig.1). We interpret this as the first evidence for
a single magma chamber, which fed the volcanic centers and supplied the ore fluids that infiltrated Cerro de
Pasco and Colquijirca. Consequently, they may form two parts of a ‘super-district’ (Fig. 2). Furthermore,
gigantism in high-sulphidation hydrothermal systems, in this case represented largely by Cordilleran base-
metal ores and also gold-(silver) high-sulphidation epithermal mineralisation, is accompanied by the
superposition of several major ore events, a process comparable to that found in very large Chilean porphyry-
copper deposits.

Acknowledgments
The present investigation is being carried out with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Sociedad
Minera El Brocal S.A., and Volcan Compañia Minera S.A.

References
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