ÁREADELCERROELDIABLO,SECTORCENTRO-OCCIDENTALDE LA CUENCA NEUQUINA, ARGENTINA: UN SISTEMA HIDROTERMAL-POLIMETÁLICO

SALVIOLI, M.A.; LAJOINIE, M.F.; LANFRANCHINI, M.E.; CURCI, M.V.; LAJOINIE, F.I

La Plata

Congreso; XII CONARGE; 2020

AAGE

The economic potential ofthe Neuquén Basin Ba-polymetallic deposits and its relationship with oil exploration enhancethe economic importance of the study area. El Diablo hill is a quartz diorite porphyry (ColipilliFormation) emplaced in the sedimentites of the Vaca Muerta and Mulichinco Formations,constituting the El Manzano anticline nucleus. These units are intruded by N-S barite and sulfidevein deposits. Field and petrochalcographic studies of the mineralization indicate that brecciaand cockade textures, together with the presence of flexed and fractured crystals, would be theresult of successive mineralizing pulses, which could preliminary be defined by an early stagebarite-1, followed by sulfide minerals, and by barite-2 at a later stage. Sulfides are representedby galena, pyrite, sphalerite and chalcopyrite. According to the regional tectonic setting, thesepulses could be linked to the development of the Agrio Fold and Thrust Belt during the LateCretaceous-Miocene. Later, structure reactivations and concomitant magmatism (Mioceno)would have released fluids and generated a temperature rise favouring the remobilization ofbasinal brines, hosted in stratigraphic horizons, constituting a hydrothermal system with Ba-SrFe-Pb-Cu-Zn mineralizations in the El Diablo hill area.