El Pilar: A Particular Case in the Porphyry Copper Deposits in Mexico
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36790/epistemus.v16i32.200Keywords:
ore deposits, porphyry copper, exoticAbstract
El Pilar is a porphyry copper deposit located in the northern part of the state of Sonora, Mexico, at ~15 km from the border with USA, and about (40 km) from the town of Cananea, inside the most favorable part of the porphyry copper belt of the southwestern North America. Its features are relatively atypical when compared with the rest of the deposits in Mexico, considering the most accepted porphyry copper model. The El Pilar is an exotic copper deposit hosted in Miocene gravels, that filled basins generated during the Basin and Range extensional event. The primary sulfide mineralization is poorly exposed and is associated with a magmatic breccia, linked with the emplacement of a monzonitic pluton dated by U-Pb zircon at ~75 Ma. The age of the mineralization was obtained by Re-Os molybdenite dating in ~73.9 Ma, and the estimated resources are of 0.36Mt copper.
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