Copper and Copper-Nickel Mineralization in Central Kamchatka

By

E. Ignatiev and E. Sidorov (Kamchatka Ecological Center)

Kamchatka is a part of the Pacific ore belt characterized by large resources of copper, gold, silver, tin, tungsten, antimony, mercury, lead, zinc, nickel and PGE. The key geological elements of the Central Kamchatka include: 1) upper Proterozoicto Mesozoic metamorphics of the Sredinny terrane; 2) upper Cretaceous island-arc siliceous-volcanic deposits of the Iruney terrane; both of which are overlain by 3) Oligocene-Quaternary deposits of the Central Kamchatka volcanic belt. Copper-nickel mineralization is confined to upper Cretaceous mafic-ultramafic sills, dikes, and one lare pluton (30 km2) in the southern and northern parts of the Sredinny terrane. One Cu-Ni deposit (Shanuch) and more than 30 promising Cu-Ni- PGE prospects are known in the Sredinny-Kviinum mineral district. The sulfide-rich Shanuch deposit, which contain up to 5 percent nickel and 4 g/t PGE, is similar to other mafic plutonic hosted copper-nickel ore deposits of the world . Auriferous copper mineralization occurs in the upper Cretaceous island-arc deposits of the Iruney terrane. The mineralization is controlled by ring volcanic-and-plutonic structures that originated at last stage of the island-arc evolution. The mineral deposits are confined to bodies of altered, alkaline volcanics. The ores richest bornite-chalcopyrite-pyrite ores in the Iruney terrane are confined to biotite-orthoclase metasomatites. The ores contain up to 7.7 percent copper, copper, 16.2 g/t gold, and 9.4 g/t PGE. The porphyry molybdenum-copper ore prospects are confined to porphyritic intermediate intrusions that intrude metamorphic rocks of the Sredinny terrane and island arc deposits of the Iruney terrane. These porphyry deposits, which contain pyrite, chalcopyrite, molybdenite and minor bornite, contain up to 4 percent copper, 0.03 percent molybdenum, and elevated gold values. Kamchatka can be considered as a newly recognized province for copper, nickel, gold and PGE ore deposits.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90008©2002 AAPG Pacific Section/SPE Western Region Joint Conference of Geoscientists and Petroleum Engineers, Anchorage, Alaska, May 18–23, 2002.