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Location: 90 km E from Iquique, Chile
Esmeralda 340 Floor 6IquiqueChile
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Operator: BHP.
The Cerro Colorado porphyry copper deposit is the northernmost currently active copper mine in Chile. It belongs to one of the Paleocene to early Eocene porphyry copper deposits that are distributed along the western slope of the main Andean Cordillera in Northern Chile. Cerro Colorado is enriched and oxidised porphyry copper deposit containing in situ copper oxide mineralisation that overlies a near-horizontal sequence of supergene sulphides, transitional sulphides and finally primary (hypogene) sulphide mineralization. The geological evolution of Cerro Colorado area can be generalized as follows. The Cretaceous Cerro Empexa Formation, consisting of a sequence of volcanic rocks, mainly andesitic lava and breccia, lahars, some ignimbrite intercalations and dacitic tuff, was intruded by tonalitic to dioritic magma in Middle-Eocene. Magmatic activities generated brecciated rocks accompanying with different alteration zones radiate outward from the intrusion. The mineralized hypogene protore later interacted with ground water, creating the supergene blanket, which is now the principal mining target of Cerro Colorado.
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