• journal_title：Economic Geology
• Contributor：Guillaume Lesage ; Jeremy P. Richards ; Karlis Muehlenbachs ; Terry L. Spell
• Publisher：Society of Economic Geologists
• Date：2013-08-01
• Format：text/html
• Language：en
• Identifier：10.2113/econgeo.108.5.1067
• journal_abbrev：Economic Geology
• issn：0361-0128
• volume：108
• issue：5
• firstpage：1067
• section：Papers

Buriticá is an intermediate sulfidation epithermal gold deposit located 75 km north of Medellín, Colombia. It is hosted by the late Miocene Buriticá andesite porphyry, a shallow-level pluton dated at 7.41 ± 0.40 Ma (2σ, MSWD = 2.30; ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar on hornblende), which intrudes volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Cretaceous Barroso Formation and the Buriticá stock.

Gold mineralization is associated with proximal sericite-adularia and distal epidote-dominant propylitic alteration, and is hosted in two different sets of veins striking and dipping ~072°/87°S and ~105°/87°S. Hydrothermal muscovite from altered host rock yielded a weighted average ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age of 7.74 ± 0.08 Ma for two samples, which is within error of the age of the Buriticá andesite porphyry.

Sulfur isotope, oxygen isotope, and fluid inclusion data indicate that a relatively hot and saline fluid (~310°C, up to ~8 wt % NaCl equiv) of probable magmatic origin was dominant during stage 1 of the vein paragenesis, and mixed with cooler and less saline groundwater during stages 2 and 3. Fluid inclusion assemblages indicate that boiling was likely the main control on gold precipitation, with cooling and dilution during fluid mixing as a possible secondary control.