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Cerro Verde

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Porphyry copper deposit in Arequipa, Peru

Names and other identifiers

GMRAP ID 267
Alternate names Santa Rosa
Tract name Chile-Peru Paleocene–Eocene Toquepala (005pCu1008)
Site status deposit

Geographic location

Country Peru
State or province Arequipa
Geographic location -71.591666667, -16.535277778
Geologic map unit -71.591666667, -16.535277778
Nearby data
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Geologic information

Deposit type Porphyry copper
Age (Ma) 61.8Ma
Age determination method unknown
Age range 61.8 ±0.7 Ma
Age reference Singer and others (2008)
Minerals alunite, anhydrite, antlerite, biotite, bornite, brochantite, carbonate, celadonite, chalcocite, chalcopyrite, chrysocolla, covellite, cubanite, enargite, ferberite, galena, goethite, hematite, ilmenite, kaolinite, luzonite, mackinawite, magnetite, malachite, molybdenite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, sericite, sphalerite, tennantite, tourmaline
Associated rocks breccia, dacite porphyry, quartz porphyry, quartz-feldspar porphyry, quartz monzodiorite porphyry, gneiss, sandstone, siltstone, shale, aplite, diorite, gneiss, granodiorite, pegmatite
Tectonic setting continental margin
Stratigraphic age Paleocene

Commodity and development information

Development status Producer
Major commodities Cu, Mo
Tonnage (Mt) 2,528Mt
Cu grade (%) 0.495%
Mo grade (%) 0.01%
Contained copper 12,510,000t
Gold-Moly ratio -9999

Reference information

Comments Tonnage and grades according to Briggs (2006), Cyprus Amax (1993–1998), Phelps Dodge (1999–2004). 1977–2004 production, 201 Mt at 0.68% Cu; 2004 resources, 1647 Mt at 0.48% Cu and 0.016% Mo, 544 Mt at 0.52% Cu, and 136 Mt at 0.3% Cu. Exposed. Two populations of supergene alunite: 38.8–36.1 Ma and 28–24.4 Ma.
Study area name Andes
References Anonymous (1993c); Anonymous (1994d); Briggs (2006); Clark (1993); Cyprus Amax Minerals Co. (1998); Le Bel (1985); Petersen and Vidal (1996); Phelps Dodge Corp. (2004); Quang and others (2003); Sillitoe (1988); Singer and others (2008)
Site reference Cunningham and others (2008)
Anonymous, 1993c, Peru: Advertisement supplement to Mining Journal, January 22, v. 320, no. 8208, p. 1–12.
Anonymous, 1994b, Cyprus acquires Cerro Verde mine: The Northern Miner, v. 80, no. 6, April 11, p. 3.
Briggs, D.F., 2006, Mining operations report, ver. 2005: unpublished report, [unknown] p.
Clark, A.H., 1993, Are outsize porphyry copper deposits either anatomically or environmentally distinctive?, in Whiting, B.H., Hodgson, C.J., and Mason, R., eds., Giant ore deposits: Society of Economic Geologists Special Publication 2, p. 213–283.
Cyprus Amax Minerals Co., 1998, Annual Reports, 1993–1998.
Le Bel, L.M., 1985, Mineralization in the Arequipa segment—The porphyry-Cu deposit of Cerro Verde/Santa Rosa, in Pitcher, W.S., Atherton, M.P., Cobbing, E.J., and Beckinsale, R.D., eds., Magmatism at a plate edge, the Peruvian Andes: London, Blackie,p. 250–260.
Petersen, U., and Vidal, C.E., 1996, Magmatic and tectonic controls on the nature and distribution ofcopper deposits in Peru, in Camus, F., Sillitoe, R.H., and Petersen, R., eds., Andean copper deposits—New discoveries, mineralization, styles and metallogeny: Society of Economic Geologists Special Publication, no. 5, p. 1–18.
Phelps Dodge Corp., 2004, Annual Reports, 1999-2004.
Quang, C.X., Clark, A.H., Lee, J.K.W., and Guillén B., Jorge, 2003, 40Ar-39Ar ages of hypogene and supergene mineralization in the Cerro Verde-Santa Rosa porphyry Cu-Mo cluster, Arequipa, Peru: Economic Geology, v. 98, p. 1683–1696. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.98.8.1683.)Sillitoe, R.H., 1988, Epochs of intrusion-related copper mineralization in the Andes: Journal of South American Earth Sciences, v. 1, no. 1, p. 89–108. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0895-9811(88)90018-1.)Singer, D.A., Berger, V.I., and Moring, B.C., 2008, Porphyry copper deposits of the world—Database and grade and tonnage models, 2008: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008-1155, [45] p. and digital data, accessed December 31, 2013, at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1155/.