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GEOLOGY, MINERALIZATION, ALTERATION AND STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION OF EL TENIENTE PORPHYRY Cu-Mo DEPOSIT—A REPLY

James Cannell^1,*, David R. Cooke^2,, John L. Walshe³ and Holly Stein⁴

¹ CODES ARC Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 79, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia
² CODES ARC Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 79, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia
³ CSIRO Division of Exploration and Mining, 26 Dick Perry Ave., Kensington, Perth, Western Australia 6151, Australia
⁴ AIRIE Program, Department of Geosciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1482, and Geological Survey of Norway, Leiv Eirikssons vei 39, 7491 Trondheim, Norway

Corresponding author: e-mail, d.cooke@utas.edu.au

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Sir: The El Teniente Cu-Mo deposit in central Chile is an extraordinary accumulation of Cu-Mo ore (Fig. 1), and we welcome the opportunity provided by Skewes and Stern (2007) to discuss and clarify several important issues regarding its classification and interpretation, and to address several incorrect assertions that they make regarding our manuscript (Cannell et al., 2005). We have interpreted El Teniente to be a typical porphyry deposit, in terms of its alteration assemblages, vein and breccia styles, and spatial and temporal relationships between Cu-Mo mineralization and felsic porphyries. Skewes and Stern (2007) dispute our claims that mineralization occurred primarily in veins and was related to felsic intrusive activity. They also take issue with our interpretations of the various geochronological datasets from El Teniente and our classification of El Teniente as a porphyry Cu-Mo deposit. We address each of these in turn below.

View larger version (45K):   FIG. 1. Geology of Teniente level 6 (2,165 m), showing the locations of sections 83 and 124 (modified from Cannell et al., 2005). This plan has been modified from the geologic data, based on underground mapping, contained in the mine database circa 1999 (data courtesy of CODELCO). Also shown is the approximate sulfide zonation pattern from A. Arévalo and R. Floody (unpub. report for CODELCO-Chile, 1995, 16 p.). Note that the bornite core of the deposit (purple color) is centered on the southern end of the dacite porphyry dike, and has been cut by the Braden pipe. The bornite-rich core is surrounded by a domain where chalcopyrite is the dominant sulfide (yellow color). The transition from chalcopyrite- to pyrite-dominant mineralization coincides roughly with the 0.5 wt percent Cu grade contour.

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