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The La Unión Au ± Cu prospect, Camagüey District, Cuba: fluid inclusion and stable isotope evidence for ore-forming processes

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Abstract

The Camagüey district, Cuba, is known for its epithermal precious metal deposits in a Cretaceous volcanic arc setting. Recently, the La Unión prospect was discovered in the southern part of the district, containing gold and minor copper mineralization interpreted as porphyry type. Mineralization is hosted in a 73.0 ± 1.5 Ma calc–alkaline I-type oxidized porphyry quartz diorite intrusive within volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of the early Cretaceous Guáimaro Formation. The porphyry is affected by propylitic alteration and crosscut by a network of quartz and carbonate veinlets and veins. Chlorite, epidote, sericite, quartz, and pyrite are the main minerals in the early veins which are cut by late carbonate and zeolite veins. Late barite pseudomorphously replaces pyrite. Gold is associated with pyrite as disseminations in the altered quartz diorite and in the veins, occurring as inclusions or filling fractures in pyrite with 4 g/t Au in bulk samples, and up to 900 ppm Au in in pyrite. Fluid inclusion and oxygen isotope data are consistent with a H2O–NaCl–(KCl) mineralizing fluid, derived from the quartz diorite magma, and trapped at least at 425°C and 1.2 kbar. This primary fluid unmixed into two fluid phases, a hypersaline aqueous fluid and a low-salinity vapor-rich fluid. Boiling during cooling may have played an important role in metal precipitation. Pyrite δ34S values for the La Unión prospect range between 0.71‰ and 1.31‰, consistent with a homogeneous magmatic sulfur source. The fluids in equilibrium with the mineralized rocks have estimated δ18O values from 8‰ to 11.8‰, calculated for a temperature range of 480–505°C. The tectonic environment of the La Unión prospect, its high gold and low copper contents, the physical–chemical characteristics of the mineralizing fluids and the isotopic signature of the alteration minerals and fluids indicate that the La Unión gold mineralization is similar to the porphyry gold type, even though the ore-related epidote–chlorite alteration can be classified as propylitic and not the classic potassic and/or phyllic alteration. The low copper contents in the prospect could be due to a mineralizing fluid previously saturated in copper, which is indicated by trapped chalcopyrite crystals in high-temperature fluid inclusions. The low-temperature paragenesis, represented by carbonate, zeolite and barite, indicates epithermal overprint. The study shows the potential for other gold porphyry-type deposits in the Cretaceous volcanoplutonic arc of Cuba.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Cuban government agencies Instituto de Geología y Paleontología and Empresa Geólogo-Minera Camagüey for the opportunity to carry out this study and for providing access to the area, samples, and to the existing data. Dr. Kazuo Fizikawa, from CNEN (Brazil), is acknowledged for the Raman analyses. Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior–CAPES (Brazil) is acknowledged for granting M. Moura fellowship support at Queen’s University. MU Santana thanks CNPq–Brazil for fellowship support during her MSc degree and Nilson F. Botelho for CNPq grant that supported some of the analytical costs. We also thank Kerry Klassen (Queen’s University) for the stable isotope analyses and Mark Badham for English editing. Constructive reviews by Timothy Baker, Steffen Hagemann, and Peter Neumayr resulted in many improvements to this contribution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Geología y Paleontología, Vía Blanca s/n, San Miguel del Padrón, La Habana, Cuba

    Miriela María Ulloa Santana

  2. Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Asa Norte, 70910-900, Brasília, DF, Brazil

    Márcia Abrahão Moura, Nilson Francisquini Botelho & Bernhard Bühn

  3. Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada, K7l3N6

    Gema R. Olivo & T. Kurtis Kyser

Authors
  1. Miriela María Ulloa Santana
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  2. Márcia Abrahão Moura
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  3. Gema R. Olivo
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  4. Nilson Francisquini Botelho
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  5. T. Kurtis Kyser
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  6. Bernhard Bühn
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Correspondence to Márcia Abrahão Moura.

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Editorial handling: B. Lehmann

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Santana, M.M.U., Moura, M.A., Olivo, G.R. et al. The La Unión Au ± Cu prospect, Camagüey District, Cuba: fluid inclusion and stable isotope evidence for ore-forming processes. Miner Deposita 46, 91–104 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-010-0313-8

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