SHRIMP U-Pb dating of the Antucoya porphyry copper deposit: new evidence for an Early Cretaceous porphyry-related metallogenic epoch in the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile

Abstract

The Antucoya porphyry copper deposit (300 Mt at 0.45% total Cu) is one of the largest deposits of a poorly known Early Cretaceous porphyry belt in the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile. It is related to a succession of granodioritic and tonalitic porphyritic stocks and dikes that were emplaced within Jurassic andesitic rocks of the La Negra Formation immediately west of the N - S trending sinistral strike-slip Atacama Fault Zone. New zircon SHRIMP U - Pb data indicate that the porphyries of Antucoya crystallized within the time span from 142.7 +/- 1.6 to 140.6 +/- 1.5 Ma (+/- 2 sigma), and late, unmineralized, NW-SE trending dacite dikes with potassic alteration and internal deformation crystallized at 141.9 +/- 1.4 Ma. The Antucoya porphyry copper system appears to be formed after a change of stress conditions along the magmatic arc from extensional in the Late Jurassic to transpressive during the Early Cretaceous and provides support for an Early Cretaceous metallogenic episode of porphyry-type mineralization along the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile.