The purpose of this research has been to determine the origin of the San Vicente zinc-lead deposit based on textural, mineralogical and geochemical studies of the sulfide ores and carbonate host rock. The relatively simple and uncomplicated mineralogy of the ores and host rock permits the application of standard petrographic techniques as well as specialized methods such as cathodoluminescence, electron microprobe analysis, and detailed sulfur isotope geochemistry. <...>

More than fifty significant porphyry copper deposits are distributed over a 2000 km interval within the U.S. and Mexico, following a trend subparallel to the southwestern margin of North America. These include giant supergene enriched deposits such as those at Morenci in Arizona (4.7 Gt @ 0.52% Cu) and Cananea (7.1 Gt @ 0.42% Cu) in Sonora, Mexico.

The porphyry copper deposits of southwestern North America were developed in a continental margin cratonic setting, above a subduction zone that was active largely from the Early Mesozoic to the Late-Tertiary. While significant ore deposits of Jurassic to Mid-Tertiary age are known, the majority were emplaced between 72 and 55 Ma, during the peak of magmatic activity along the Laramide Arc. Laramide magmatism and crustal shortening ceased by around 50 Ma, in the mid Eocene, to be followed by a 15 m.y. period of magmatic quiescence, erosion and localised continental sedimentation, the Eocene Epeirogeny. This was succeeded from around 35 Ma by the Mid-Tertiary Orogeny, which persisted through the Oligocene to the Early Miocene and resulted in renewed, widespread volcanism, and by crustal extension. Extension was characterised by the development of listric, detachment and strike-slip faults, associated listric tilting of up to 60° or more, and the uplift and exposure of metamorphic core complexes. During the Mid- to Late-Miocene, between 18 and 10 Ma, the nature of tectonism in the region changed through a period of transition, from an extensional to a block faulted 'basin and range' regime which persists locally to the present. The typical basins are grabens or half grabens, with structural relief between the base of sediment filled basins and the crests of the adjacent ranges of from 2 to 4 km, and sometimes more than 6 km.

The Olympic Cu-Au province on the eastern margin of the Gawler Craton includes three major regions of hydrothermal alteration and mineralisation: Stuart Shelf basement (including the Olympic Dam Cu-U-Au deposit), Mount Woods lnlier and the Moonta-Wallaroo-Roopena region. Each of these regions contains high-, moderate- and low-temperature Fe-oxide rich alteration, Cu-Au+U mineralisation, and felsic to mafic Mesoproterozoic (-1590 Ma) intrusions of the Hiltaba Suite with or without coeval Gawler Range Volcanics. The three regions are interpreted to represent the 'footprints' of separate crustal-scale thermal anomalies. Three key hydrothermal alteration and ore mineral assemblages are recognised in the metallogenic province: (1) CAM: calcsilicate - alkali feldspar ± magnetite ± Fe-Cu sulphides (generally minor); (2) MB: magnetite-biotite + Fe-Cu sulphides; and (3) HSCC: hematite-sericite-chlorite-carbonate ± Fe-Cu sulphides ± U, REE minerals. Ore grade Cu-U-Au mineralisation is generally associated with the HSCC assemblage, which is paragenetically later than the CAM and MB assemblages in most deposits and prospects. The crustal level of exposure of the hydrothermal systems may vary significantly between and within the three mineralised regions. The CAM, MB and HSCC assemblages and associated Cu-Au mineralisation represent a possible spectrum of settings from deeper, higher temperature, shear-hosted environments to near-surface, low-temperature breccia and fault settings.

The Bayan Obo Fe-REE-Nb deposit is currently the world's largest REE resource. It has estimated reserves of up to 1500Mt of iron oxides (35 wt. % Fe), 48-1 OOMt REE (6 wt. % REE,03) and IMt Nb (0.13 wt. % Nb). The deposits are hosted in the Proterozoic Bayan Obo group sediments, mostly in dolomite marble, although the deposits themselves are principally Caledonian in age (555-420Ma). Fe occurs as magnetite and hematite, whilst the REE occur principally as monazite and bastnasite, although over 16 individual REE-minerals and 17 REE-bearing niobium minerals are also present. The deposits are accompanied by an alteration assemblage of apatite, aegirine, aegirine-augite, fluorite, alkali amphibole, phlogopite and barite. Albite and K-feldspar occur in the overlying slates and schists.

The deposits were formed by multistage hydrothermal replacement of marble during Caledonian subduction. The source of metals and fluids is uncertain, although carbonatites, alkaline igneous rocks, A-type granites and subduction-derived fluids have all been suggested as possibilities. Late stage, low salinity fluids were responsible for extensive modification of the deposit, and an overprint of sulphide and barite alteration. The deposits show many similarities in processes to others of the Fe-oxide class, but there are important differences including the absence of significant base metal sulphide mineralisation, no enrichment in U, and the absence of evidence for the involvement of hypersaiine brines in ore genesis.