What is it about?
Chuquicamata is a giant porphyry copper molybdenum deposit in Chile, mined for over a century. I t is truncated on its west side by a regional fault (with 35 km left lateral displacement) , and there has been speculation (and much expenditure in exploration) about where the missing half went. This study suggests that a large piece of Chuquicamata is present as the Mina Ministro Hales (MMH) on the west side of the fault, only 7 km south of the main mine.
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Why is it important?
Copper is a strategic metal in great demand by the green economy.
Perspectives
Errors in dating the MMH deposit had led to a wrong interpretation, but this paper shows that MMH and Chuquicamata proper are identical in mineralogy, geochemistry and geological age.
Dr. Marcos Zentilli
Dalhousie University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Locating the “Missing Half” of the Giant Chuquicamata Porphyry Copper Deposit, Chile, January 2021, Society of Economic Geologists,
DOI: 10.5382/sp.24.05.
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