Geochronology of Mexican mineral deposits: II: Veta Madre and Sierra epithermal vein systems, Guanajuato district

This paper presents two new high-resolution geochronological determinations for the epithermal deposits in the World-class Guanajuato mining district, in central Mexico. These are a Rb-Sr isochron age in illite at 28.47 ± 0.55 Ma for the Villalpando and San Juan de Dios low sulfidation veins of the Sierra group of veins, and a 40Ar/39Ar plateau age in adularia ("valencianite") at 30.20 ± 0.17 Ma for the La Valenciana ore shoot of the famous Veta Madre intermediate sulfidation vein. These determinations have greater accuracy, precision and trueness than the preexisting K-Ar determinations for similar adularia samples. The accuracy of such determinations supports the idea of a diachronic emplacement of intermediate and low sulfidation deposits in this district, the former being older than the latter, similar to other epithermal deposits in Mexico. Also, the ~2 m.yr. span between the Veta Madre and Sierra groups of epithermal veins is in agreement with other case studies, regardless of the size of the deposit.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Martínez-Reyes,Juan José, Camprubí,Antoni, Uysal,I. Tonguç, Iriondo,Alexander, González-Partida,Eduardo
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Sociedad Geológica Mexicana A.C. 2015
Online Access:	http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1405-33222015000200016
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