Iron Oxide-copper-gold deposits

(IOCGs)

Acknowledgements!

4. Kiruna District, Sweden

If it had not been for a field trip led by Prof. Dick Hutchinson
of CSM (long before I thought about academia) I would never
have become re-engaged in thinking about IOCGs and
wondering how they related to a wide variety of ore deposits.
The Kiruna districts is one of the best places to see
spectacular geology on Earth and it makes one think about
crustal-scale hydrothermal processes the sort that go into
making IOCG (and associated) deposits.

Murray W. Hitzman
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO USA

Norrbotten and
Bergslagen are
both world-class
iron districts.
Atik is the only
major Cu-Au
producer is it
an IOCG??.!

Page 1

Kiruna District (and most of Norbotten) is an iron district.

Page 2

Viscaria Mine

Greenstone
Basement (~2.1 Ga)!

Greenstone
Basement
Sediments!
Interbedded limestone, chert,
and albitite - tuff? Siltstone?
Shallow water sequence.
Intensely albitically altered.

Greenstone
Basement
Sediments!

Kurravaara
Conglomerate!

Viscaria Mine

Interbedded limestone, chert,

and albitite - tuff? Siltstone?
Mineralized above (3% Cu).
Shallow water sequence mudcracks to right.
Intensely albitically altered.

Basal sequence in Porphyry

Group (1.9 - 1.8 Ga).
Weakly albitically altered.

Page 3

Syenite Porphyry!

Quartz Porphyry!
The Quartz Porphyry is an
ignimbrite of rhyolitic
composition. In the Kiruna
mine area it has been
potassically altered (Kfeldspar).

The syenite porphyry forms the footwall to the Kiruna magnetite body. It is an
intensely albitically altered rock with minor actinolite-magnetite veining (increasing
toward Kiruna magnetite body).

This image is of the basal portion of the unit in the Loussavaara pit. The matrix of
the porphyry has been altered to Ksp. Clasts are variably altered. Several of these
clasts consist primarily of magnetite. While they appear to be magnetite clasts
(mineralized before the formation of the ignimbrite, close inspection suggests they
are a replacement phenomena).

Hauki Volcanic and Sedimentary Sequence!

Hauki Sequence - North Wall of Henry Pit!

Stratigraphic Up

Strat Up

Rektor porphyry (potassically altered

ignimbrite) overlain by sericite-carbonate
(hydrolytic) altered tuffs,

Lower Hauki sequence of tuffs and

Interbedded siltstones.

The Hauki Sequence forms a mixed

sedimentary (volcaniclastic siltstones,
graphitic siltstones, and limestone) and
volcanic (thin ignimbrites, tuffs) sequence
above the Quartz Porphyry.

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Vakko Sediments!

Alteration Zoning at Kiruna!

Hydrolytic
Potassic

Sodic
The Hauki Sequence grades upwards into a fine-grained siltstone to
calcareous siltstone sequence.

Sodic Alteration Breccia!

Sodic Alteration!

Base of Kirunavaara magnetite body.

Syenite porphyry which is

intensely albitically altered
(white to pink color) and cut
by magnetite-actinolite
(sodic-calcic alteration) in
the footwall to the Kiruna
magnetite body.

Hydrolytic
Potassic
Sodic

Page 5

Sodic Alteration!

Potassic Alteration!
Top of Kiruna mgt body

Rektor porphyry (Hauki)

An55 plagioclase
replaced by albite
(Kiruna Footwall)
Above the magnetite body
the Quartz Porphyry and
sediments and volcanic
rocks in the Hauki Sequence
have been affected by
intense potassic alteration
(replacement K-feldspar and
lesser biotite).

Potassic Alteration!

Hydrolytic
Potassic
Sodic

Potassic Alteration!
An55 plagioclase
replaced by
orthoclase (Kiruna
hangingwall)

Hydrothermal biotite
intergrown with and
replaced by
magnetite

Rektor Porphyry (thin ignimbrite) with intense potassic

(K-feldspar) alteration.

Page 6

Hydrolytic Alteration!
Sericite Quartzite - altered tuff

Within the Hauki Sequence,

potassically altered rocks are
progressively replaced by an
assemblage of sericite carbonate - quartz. The
stable iron oxide is hematite.

Magnetite
Mineralization!

Hydrolytic Alteration!
Sericite-hematite-quartz
assemblage

Sericite-quartz
alteration

Hydrolytic
Potassic

Dolomite alteration

Sodic

Per Geijer
Mineralization
Mgt-Hm & Hm!

Hangingwall

Footwall

Strat Up

Hydrolytic alt
Potassic alt
Potassic alt
Potassic alt

Sodic alt.
The Kirunavaara and Luosavaara magnetite bodies are stratiform and occur
along the contact between the Syenite Porphyry and the Quartz Porphyry.
Both the hangingwall and footwall are breccias. The body formed by
replacement.

Page 7

The Hauki Sequence contains thin

magnetite bodies (near the base of the
sequence), partially martized magnetite
bodies, and massive hematite bodies near
the top of the sequence. Hematite
becomes more prevelant with increasing
intensity of hydrolytic alteration.

Deep Sulfide
Mineralization!

Minor pyrite > chalcopyrite occurs in late veins cutting sodic-calcic

alteration assemblages in the footwall of the Kiruna magnetite
body. These sulfides are similar to minor sulfides observed in
many magnetite - apatite bodies.

Shallow Sulfide Mineralization!

Chalcopyrite occurs in
hydrolytically altered
sediments and volcanic rocks
as disseminated chalcopyrite.
These rocks also contain
elevated Au and U contents.

Age of Alteration / Mineralization!

Conglomerates at the
top of the Hauki
Sequence appear to
contain clasts of
potassically and
hydrolytically altered
rocks as well as rare
iron oxide (both
magnetite and
hematite) clasts. This
suggests that the rocks
had been altered and
mineralized by latest
Hauki time. Hauki
mineralization probably
took place within 150m
of the paleosurface.

The best copper

mineralization observed
occurred in a graphitic
phyllite within the Hauki
sequence (hydrolytically
altered) - redox trap.

Page 8

Despite being one of the largest iron

deposits on Earth (+ 5 Bt @ 60% Fe),
the Kiruna system has very little CuAu.!

Important Points!
Kiruna is world-class ore system. Huge volumes of fluids must
have moved through the area.
Did these fluids lack Cu-Au or did it just not precipitate? Fluid
inclusion (PIXE) studies urgently needed to answer this question.
The magnetite bodies lack significant disseminated chalcopyrite
so even martization and movement of copper would not result in a
significant orebody (as proposed for Gawler).
Best Cu-Au mineralization is in the hydrolytic zone and is
associate with a redox trap.
Geological relationships suggest system developed within 1 km of
earths surface, little evidence of explosive volcanism - relatively
low T fluids? Deep water column?

Quartz porphyry clasts with reaction rims in mgt-hm

matrix, Rektorn orebody.

Page 9