Julio C. Ávila

Metallogeny Of Culampajá Gold District, Argentina

The Culampaja auriferous district is located in Catamarca, Argentina, and belongs to Sierras Pampeanas morphostructural province; this is confirmed by metasedimentary and granitic rocks. The lodes are widely distributed in an approximate surface of 70 km2. Mineralisation is in the form of quartz veins. Generally, vein strike is 90° N with a subvertical dip. They are up to hundreds of metres long and their thickness ranges from 0.90 to 1 m. Veins have tabular shapes. They are constituted mainly of quartz, with minor microcline, plagioclase, biotite and muscovite. The ore mineral is native gold with lesser amounts of pyrite, chalcopyrite, hematite, limonite, malachite, azurite and covellite. These ore mineral assemblages are disseminated in quartz. On the basis of the alteration pattern and mineralogy, together with the characteristics of fluid inclusions, it is suggested that the mineralization was formed during the late magmatic hydrothermal stage genetically linked to granitic rocks comparable with the intrusion-related gold system.