Evolution of a Porphyry-Cu Mineralized Magma System at Santa Rita, New Mexico (USA)

The magmatic processes leading to porphyry-Cu mineralizationat Santa Rita are reconstructed on the basis of petrographicstudies, thermobarometry, and laser-ablation inductively-coupled-plasmamass-spectrometry analyses of silicate melt and sulfide inclusionsfrom dikes ranging from basaltic andesite to rhyodacite. Combinedresults suggest that magma evolution at Santa Rita is similarto that of sulfur-rich volcanoes situated above subduction zones,being characterized by repeated injection of hot, mafic magmainto an anhydrite-bearing magma chamber of rhyodacitic composition.The most mafic end-member identified at Santa Rita is a shoshoniticbasaltic andesite that crystallized at 1000–1050°C,1–3 kbar and log f_O2 = NNO + 0·7 to NNO + 1·0,whereas the rhyodacite crystallized at 730–760°C andlog f_O2 = NNO + 1·3 to NNO + 1·9. Mixing betweenthe two magmas caused precipitation of 0·1–0·2wt % magmatic sulfides and an associated decrease in the Cucontent of the silicate melt from 300–500 ppm to lessthan 20 ppm. Quantitative modeling suggests that temporal storageof ore-metals in magmatic sulfides does not significantly enhancethe amount of copper ultimately available to ore-forming hydrothermalfluids. Magmatic sulfides are therefore not vital to the formationof porphyry-Cu deposits, unless a mechanism is required thatholds back ore-forming metals until late in the evolution ofthe volcanic–plutonic system. KEY WORDS: porphyry-Cu; sulfur; sulfides; magma mixing; LA-ICP-MS