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.
Downloads
References
Valencia-Moreno, M., Ochoa-Landín, L., Noguez-Alcántara, B., Ruiz, J., & Pérez-Segura, E. “Geological and metallogenetic characteristics of the porphyry copper deposits of México and their situation in the world context”. SPECIAL PAPERS-GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA, 422, 433, 2007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1130/2007.2422(16)
Valencia-Moreno, M., Camprubí, A., Ochoa-Landín, L., Calmus, T., & Mendívil-Quijada, H., “Latest Cretaceous-early Paleogene “boom” of porphyry Cu mineralization associated with the Laramide magmatic arc of Mexico”. Ore Geology Reviews, 81, 1113-1124., 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2016.05.005
Sillitoe, R. H. “The tops and bottoms of porphyry copper deposits”. Economic Geology, 68(6), 799-815, 1973. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.68.6.799
Sillitoe, R. H., & Hedenquist, J. W., “Linkages between volcanotectonic settings, ore-fluid compositions, and epithermal precious metal deposits”. Special Publication-Society of Economic Geologists, 10, 315-343, 2003.
Titley, S. R., and Beane R. E., “Porphyry copper deposits; part I, geologic settings, petrology, and tectogenesis”. Economic Geology, 75th Anniversary Volume, 214-269, 1981.
Lowell, D. J., & Gilbert, J. D. “Lateral and Vertical Alteration-Mineralization Zoning in porphyry ore deposits”. Economic Geology, 65, 373-408, 1970. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.65.4.373
Calmus, Thierry, 2011, Evolución geológica de Sonora durante el Cretácico Tardío y el Cenozoico, in Calmus, Thierry, ed., Panorama de la geología de Sonora, México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geología, Boletín 118, cap. 7, 227−266.
Del Rio-Salas, R., Ochoa-Landín, L., Valencia-Moreno, M., Calmus, T., Meza-Figueroa, D., Salgado-Souto, S., & Mendívil-Quijada, H.. “New U–Pb and Re–Os geochronology of Laramide porphyry copper mineralization along the Cananea lineament, northeastern Sonora, Mexico: Contribution to the understanding of the Cananea copper district”. Ore Geology Reviews, 81, 1125-1136, 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2015.11.029
Rodríguez Castañeda, J. L., & Anderson, T. H. “El arco magmático jurásico en Sonora, México—distribución, edades y ambiente tectónico”. Boletín del Instituto de Geología. UNAM, (118), 2011.
Mercator Minerals LTD., “Feasibility Study El Pilar Project Sonora, México”. 43-101F1 Technical Study Report, 319 p., 2011.
Rascón-Heimpel, M. A. “Visita al Proyecto El Pilar, Mpio. Santa Cruz, Sonora”. Proyecto PERUMEX. Libreto Guía, Grupo México, 19 p., 2018.
![](https://epistemus.unison.mx/public/journals/1/submission_200_208_coverImage_es_ES.jpg)
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 EPISTEMUS
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The magazine acquires the patrimonial rights of the articles only for diffusion without any purpose of profit, without diminishing the own rights of authorship.
The authors are the legitimate owners of the intellectual property rights of their respective articles, and in such quality, by sending their texts they express their desire to collaborate with the Epistemus Magazine, published biannually by the University of Sonora.
Therefore, freely, voluntarily and free of charge, once accepted the article for publication, they give their rights to the University of Sonora for the University of Sonora to edit, publish, distribute and make available through intranets, Internet or CD said work, without any limitation of form or time, as long as it is non-profit and with the express obligation to respect and mention the credit that corresponds to the authors in any use that is made of it.
It is understood that this authorization is not an assignment or transmission of any of your economic rights in favor of the said institution. The University of Sonora guarantees the right to reproduce the contribution by any means in which you are the author, subject to the credit being granted corresponding to the original publication of the contribution in Epistemus.
Unless otherwise indicated, all the contents of the electronic edition are distributed under a license for use and Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International — (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) You can consult here the informative version and the legal text of the license. This circumstance must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
The names and email addresses entered in this journal will be used exclusively for the purposes established in it and will not be provided to third parties or for their use for other purposes.