1. Mineral Resources
  2. Online Spatial Data
  3. Global assessment of undiscovred copper resources

Laramide Central Plateau

XML
JSON
KML
Belt of Late Cretaceous to middle Eocene (Laramide) magmatic arc rocks in the eastern part of the Sierra Madre Occidental, eastern Mexican Basin and Range, and the Mesa Central of northern Mexico
Tract ID 003pCu3008
Country Mexico
Commodity Cu
Study area name Mexico
Tectonic setting continental margin
Deposit type porphyry copper
Grade-tonnage model General porphyry copper model (Singer and others, 2008)
Geologic age
Geologic feature age Late Cretacous through Eocene (Laramide)
Generalized age Tertiary-Paleogene
Oldest rocks age 99.6Ma
Youngest rocks age 33.9Ma
Age range 65.7Ma
Known prospects 4
Mean Cu (t/sq km) 341t/sq km
Map scales used 500K

Results of the assessment

Assessment date 2008
Estimators Francisco Cendejas-Cruz, Enrique Espinosa, Floyd Gray, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Steve Ludington, Gilpin R. Robinson, Jr., Efren Pérez-Segura, Martín Valencia-Morena, José Luis Rodríguez-Castañeda, Lukas Zürcher
Assessment depth 1km
Quantitative assessment Yes

Estimated number of deposits

Number of deposits Confidence level
2 90%
5 50%
10 10%
10 5%
10 1%
Mean estimated deposits 5.47 ±2.97 (0.54%)
Probability of mean 0.31
Probability of no copper 0.04

Estimated deposit density

Known
deposits		 Total
deposits		 Area
(sq km)		 Deposit density
per 100,000 sq km
5.47 58,720 9

Mean estimated tonnage

Copper 20,000,000
Molybdenum 560,000
Gold 510
Silver 6,500
Ore 4,100

Undiscovered copper resource

Confidence level 95% 90% 50% 10% 5%
Tonnage 280,000 1,500,000 12,000,000 47,000,000 73,000,000

Economic analysis

Fraser country Mexico
Fraser type 0.68%
Fraser high 0.32%
Typical cost 1%
High cost 0%
Infrastructure setting Typical
Comments on depth 65% cover; skew deep
Expected depth distribution
0 - 250m 0.1
250m - 500m 0.3
500m - 1km 0.6
Economically recoverable resources
Copper 13,000,000t
Molybdenum 260,000t
Gold 260t
Silver 3,900t
Probability no econ recoverable 0.22
Econ NPV 3,500x $1M
Exp dollars 52.61x $1M/100,000 sq km
Exp value class High

Bibliographic references

General Hammarstrom and others (2010)
Economic Robinson and Menzie (2012)
Hammarstrom, J.M., Robinson, G.R., Jr., Ludington, Steve, Gray, Floyd, Drenth, B.J., Cendejas-Cruz, Francisco, Espinosa, Enrique, Pérez-Segura, Efrén, Valencia-Moreno, Martín, Rodríguez-Castañeda, José Luis, Vásquez-Mendoza, Rigoberto, and Zürcher, Lukas,2010, Porphyry copper assessment of Mexico: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–A, 176 p., http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2010/5090/a/.Robinson, G.R., Jr., and Menzie, W.D., 2012, Economic filters for evaluating porphyry copper deposit resource assessments using grade-tonnage deposit models, with examples from the U.S. Geological Survey global mineral resource assessment (ver 1.2, March 2014): U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–H, 21 p., http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2010/5090/h/.