Overheated, Cu-bearing magmas in the Zaldı́var porphyry-Cu deposit, Northern Chile. Geodynamic consequences

Abstract

The Zaldı́var porphyry copper deposit, Northern Chile, consists of two major intrusions, the 290 Ma Zaldı́var, and the more recent Miocene (38.7 Ma) Llamo porphyry. Five types of inclusions have been identified in quartz phenocrysts from Llamo porphyry, including melt inclusions (M), and four types of fluid inclusions, called MS (multi solids), B (brines), G (vapor-rich) and W (aqueous), respectively.Melt remnants, well preserved as M-inclusions, homogenize around 1000 °C. They show a rhyolitic composition, comparable to the most evolved acidic rhyolitic end member found elsewhere in the regional magmatism and to worldwide volcanic rhyolitic glass. High silica content in some inclusions can, however, be due to partial remelting of the quartz host during the heating run. Copper content in the same inclusions ranges between 0.03 and 0.57 wt.%, with an average concentration of 0.10 wt.%, suggesting a major magmatic source for the copper (orthomagmatic model).MS inclusions, which contain a number of solids at room temperature, mostly H2O-bearing phases (system NaCl–KCl–((Fe, Mg, Cu)Cl)–H2O, average salinity 70 wt.% NaCl equiv.), homogenize at magmatic temperatures (around 1000 °C). They represent the first fluids to have exsolved from the magma at depth, at a pressure of about 2 kbar. Their high homogenization temperature, comparable to values measured for melt inclusions (1000 to 1050 °C), may indicate trapping of MS and M inclusions in host phenocrysts from an immiscible mixture of silicate melt and highly saline fluids expelled from the magma during the early stage of quartz crystallization.The data indicate a magmatic origin for copper, as well as extremely high melt temperatures. These features are interpreted by magmatic differentiation of mantle-derived primitive melts, corresponding to major changes in the tectonic regime of the Andean margin, which occurred in Miocene times.