Descripción: The Arroyo La Chilca-Zanjón del Buitre alteration zone, San Rafael Massif, Mendoza. The Arroyo La Chilca-Zanjón del Buitre alteration zone is located in the San Rafael Massif (35°24'8" S; 68°19'25,8" W), Mendoza. Previous works defined preliminary this deposit as a porphyry copper system genetically linked to the gondwanan magmatism. This alteration zone is hosted by a sequence composed of ignimbritic breccias and ignimbrites of trachyandesitic composition with interbedded tuffaceous sandstones and andesitic lavas flows intruded by trachyandesitic-dacitic and andesitic hypabyssal bodies. The lithology and geochemistry of the volcanic sequence confirm the link with the Choiyoi Magmatic Cycle lower section (Lower Permian). The alteration zone consists of a potassic halo with a parageneses of K-feldspar-quartzmagnetite overprinted by phyllic alteration with an assemblage of quartz-muscovite-pyrite-(rutile) and quartz -pyrite veins. A late carbonatization process overprints both the potassic and phyllic alteration. Outside the alteration zone pyrite-chalcopyrite- galena-sphalerite veins with quartz gangue crop out. Metals geochemistry shows moderate Ag and Au anomalies and little Cu, Mo, Pb and Zn anomalies. Statistical analyses allow defining one Cu-Mo mineralizing stage and another Mo mineralizing stage only recognized in Zanjón del Buitre. Moreover, two Zn mineralizing stages, one of them probably genetically related to the Cu stage, were also recognized.

Descripción: El Infiernillo Mining District is located in the San Rafael Block (34°38'20";68°47'37"), province of Mendoza, Argentina. It is a porphyry Cu (Mo) type deposit which is hosted by a volcaniclastic sequence. It develops an alteration halo with a concentric pattern consisting of a central quartz neck surrounded by a potassic alteration zone and outwards a phyllic halo and small polymetallic veins. The potassic halo has a paragenesis of K-feldspar-quartz-(biotite). Three silicification phases are related to this alteration stage, one of them (with temperature between 550° and 390°C and salinity between 35 and 47 %) genetically linked to the copper mineralization. The phyllic alteration consists of quartz-illite-(rutile) with minor albite. The albitization process points out to an early phase of this phyllic stage. The fluid inclusions together with the textures of the quartz neck suggest the shallowing of the active hydrothermal system. The disseminated ore paragenesis consists of bornite, chalcopyrite-molibdenite, pyrite, (galena-sphalerite). The presence of molibdenite-quartz veins indicate the transition from the potassic to the phyllic stage while the pyrite-quartz ones point out to a transition to a fragile deformation regime during which the polymetallic veins, with a paragenesis of chalcopyrite- sphalerite, pyrite, (Ag) tetrahedrite, galena were formed. The petrologic characteristics of the volcaniclastic host rocks reveal that they correspond to the lower section of Choiyoi magmatic cycle. The magmatic and structural controls constrain the age of this ore deposit to the Early-Middle to Late Permian.

Descripción: Drill samples from the Carrizal uranium ore deposit located in Western Precordillera, Province of San Juan, Argentina, were studied by petrography, ore microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive electron microscope and microprobe methods. A mesothermal ore paragenesis composed of arsenic-nickel-cobalt-uranium-bismuth minerals was identified. The established paragenetic sequence is pyrite-bismuthinite; nickeline-gersdorffite-rammelsbergite-pechblende, in an assemblage hosted by lithic breccia. A second mineralization stage produced a porphyry copper deposit, spatially but not genetically associated with the above described assemblage. © 1997 Asociación Geológica Argentina.