Fluorite deposits at Encantada–Buenavista, Mexico: products of Mississippi Valley type processes

Abstract

Petroleum and aqueous fluid inclusions from the Encantada–Buenavista fluorite mineralized zone in northern Mexico were analyzed by microthermometry, UV fluorescence, Raman Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy (CSLM) to evaluate the geochemical evolution of the mineralizing fluids. Two-phase (petroleum or brine+vapor) and three-phase (petroleum+brine+vapor) inclusions are described. Aqueous and petroleum-rich inclusions commonly occur in the same plane. Vapor-decrepitated and stretched fluid inclusions are present. A low-salinity methane-saturated fluid and a high salinity-fluid with highly variable methane contents are recognized. H 2S is not quantified but is always detected in close association with methane. Petroleum inclusions are of two types: a low methane petroleum fluid (20 mol%) with low T h (60 °C) and a petroleum fluid with a methane of content near 30 mol% and a T h of 90 °C. Pressure and temperature diagrams for the aqueous and petroleum inclusions show three main intersects that allow P– T– X reconstruction of fluid evolution at La Encantada–Buenavista. A CH 4- and H 2S-rich low-salinity brine was mixed with oil that migrated under hydrostatic conditions with a thermal gradient of 70 °C/km. The arrival and mixing of a high-salinity aqueous fluid produced overpressure to 300 bars. A return to hydrostatic conditions was accompanied by an increase in the thermal gradient. The brine related to the fluorite orebodies appears to have a genetic relationship with the brines reported from the Jurassic petroleum basins located west of the fluorite bodies and similarities with reported fluids from Mississippi Valley type deposits. It is interpreted that the fluorine-rich fluids migrated toward the platform margins during the mid-Tertiary (30 to 32 Ma) using extension zones related to Basin and Range tectonism. Mixing of two different brines was responsible for precipitation and mineralization. Heat from magmas, related to tectonic extension, caused decrepitation and changes in the shape of fluid inclusions near the contact zones.