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Science 19 December 2003:
Vol. 302. no. 5653, pp. 2109 - 2111
DOI: 10.1126/science.1089927
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Reports

Melt Inclusions in Veins: Linking Magmas and Porphyry Cu Deposits

Anthony C. Harris,1* Vadim S. Kamenetsky,1 Noel C. White,1 Esmé van Achterbergh,2 Chris G. Ryan2

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 ore-forming processes, including determination of bulk partition coefficients of metals from magma into ore-forming magmatic volatile phases.

1 Centre for Ore Deposit Research, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 79, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
2 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Exploration and Mining, Post Office Box 136, North Ryde, New South Wales 1670, Australia.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: A.Harris{at}utas.edu.au

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)