Melt inclusions in veins: linking magmas and porphyry Cu deposits

At a porphyry copper-gold deposit in Bajo de la Alumbrera, Argentina, silicate-melt inclusions coexist with hypersaline liquid- and vapor-rich inclusions in the earliest magmatic-hydrothermal quartz veins. Copper concentrations of the hypersaline liquid and vapor inclusions reached maxima of 10.0 weight % (wt %) and 4.5 wt %, respectively. These unusually copper-rich inclusions are considered to be the most primitive ore fluid found thus far. Their preservation with coexisting melt allows for the direct quantification of important oreforming processes, including determination of bulk partition coefficients of metals from magma into ore-forming magmatic volatile phases.     

Removal of Potassium Alters b-Dimension of Muscovite

By treatment of muscovite with molten lithium nitrate at 300 degrees C we have been able to remove a large portion of the interlayer potassium and observe a decrease in the apparent b-axis length as a function of potassium content over the range of 8.8 to 0.7 percent potassium. The b-axis length of Silversheen mica (a 2M(1) muscovite) decreases from 9.024 to 8.988 A as the potassium content decreases from 8.79 to 3.31 percent. The contraction of the b-dimension results in an effective decrease in the size of the ditrigonal opening in the planar surfaces with a consequent increase in the d(001) upon re-saturation with potassium.