Depth-related variation of tourmaline in the breccia pipe of the San Jorge porphyry copper deposit, Mendoza, Argentina

Abstract The San Jorge porphyry copper deposit in Mendoza, Argentina in some parts contains breccia pipes that are strongly enriched with tourmaline of the dravite–schorl solid solution series with some quartz, muscovite, orthoclase, kaolinite, Cu sulfides and arsenopyrite. The overall composition of tourmaline is rather homogeneous with an intracrystalline variation of the Fe/Mg ratio reflected by its texture, its core-rim zonation of tourmaline and by the statistical variation of the Fe/Mg ratio. The depth-related intracrystalline changes are best interpreted as a hydrothermal collapse breccia which formed as a result of the reaction of primary hydrothermal B–Fe-enriched fluids with the country rocks enriched in Mg. The chemical composition attests to only small-scale interaction of tourmaline with silicate fragments within the tourmaline breccia itself. Tourmaline as one of the ultrastable heavy minerals in stream sediment offers a potential tool to discriminate between Cu-bearing and barren breccia pipes, using the Fe/Mg ratio of the boron silicate for distinction. Fertile breccias reveal a significantly better correlation between Fe and Mg than barren tourmaline breccias.