Exposures levels of the deposits of the Agua de Dionisio (YMAD) mining district, Catamarca

Abstract

Deposits from the Agua de Dionisio mining district were uncovered by the collapse and erosion of the Farallón Negro Volcanic Complex. Site level and later morphotectonic processes are, among other, factors that determine the exposure level of each deposit. According to the exposure level, chemical elements being representative of the vertical or horizontal zoning of the hydrothermal system are present. The exposure levels of some deposits are studied from the geostatistical treatment of chemical elements obtained from surface rock samples. At the exposure level of the Alto de la Blenda epithermal deposit, characteristic elements from the sulfosalt zone, and others from the epithermal system sulphide zone are present. In the Farallón Negro epithermal deposit, the associated elements match with the system intermediate zone (sulphides-sulfosalts). In the La Alumbrera and Las Pampitas porphyry-type copper deposits, the groups of certain elements are representative of the propylitic and sericytic-potassic zones of a porphyry-type copper system. In the El Durazno deposit, some groups of elements represent the zone of sericytic-potassic alteration while others represent the propilytic zone of a porphyry-type copper system. In the Agua Tapada zone, the samples represent epithermal and porphyry-type copper prospects; the groups of elements are representative of the sulphide-sulphsalt zone of the epithermal system, but an epithermal and a porphyry-type copper system cannot be differentiated.