Cerro Choique: a multi-episodic shallow epithermal system, Somún Curá Massif, Patagonia, Argentina.

HUGHES, DANIEL; JOVIC, SEBASTIÁN; GUIDO, DIEGO

Santiago

Conferencia; SEG 2019 Conference: South American Metallogeny: Sierra to Craton.; 2019

Society of Economic Geologists

Several epithermal gold deposits hosted by Triassic-Jurassic volcanic rocks have been discovered in Argentinean extra-Andean Patagonia during the last decades. These deposits largely belong to epithermal low to intermediate sulphidation type associated with bimodal volcanism in back-arc settings. Examples are the world-class deposits Cerro Vanguardia and Cero Negro vein systems, located in the Deseado Massif (Schalamuk et al., 1997; Fig. 1a). The Somún Curá Massif was less studied and explored than the Deseado Massif, and the first epithermal gold occurrences were identified at the Los Menucos area in 1995, in the northern Somún Curá Massif (Franco et al., 1999; Fig. 1a) mainly associated with low and intermediate sulphidation epithermal deposits, but also with hydrothermal alteration zones related with high sulphidation epithermal deposit (Ducart et. al., 2006). Cerro Choique represents one of these deposits with the presence of shallow epithermal features and a complex hydrothermal and volcanic evolution.