The geochemistry of the leached capping of the La Granja porphyry copper deposit, Peru

Ninety rock samples from the La Granja porphyry copper in northern Peru have been analyzed for 30 elements, 10 of which are discussed here. Although intense weathering has produced a leached capping up to 200 m thick, the distribution of Mg, Ca, Na, K, Rb and Sr can still be correlated with different phases of hydrothermal alteration.There has been complete supergene leaching of sulphides; Cu has been depleted 10 to 30 times and Mo up to twice with respect to hypogene ore, Fe has been enriched in some parts of the leached capping, whereas Au remained stable. The coincidence of low Fe, high Mo and high Au contents with a high Cu/Fe ratio in the capping indicates the approximate centre of the underlying orebody. Also, high K, Rb, Mg and low Sr indicate high-grade copper ore.