New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

Fluid inclusiqn waters in quartz have been analyzed to determine trace element concentrations. Samples were obtained from the Copper-Flat porphyry copper deposit and the surrounding epithermal gold and silver veins. A new technique developed at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology is being used to analyze the inclusion waters. The technique involves the thermal decrepitation of fluid inclusions contained in quartz, concentration and evaporation of the liquids in quartz vials, and the analysis of the precipitated salts by neutron activation analysis.

Initial results of the data show that high concentrations of elements such as chromium, zinc, cobalt, rubidium, cesium, hafnium, zirconium, and the rare earth elements exist in the inclusion waters from quartz samples located within the porphyry copper deposit. Samples of quartz were also obtained from the epithermal gold and silver veins that surround the copper deposit. These samples will be analyzed for the same elements using the same technique.

The analyses of the inclusion waters contained in quartz from the porphyry copper deposit and the epithermal veins will be reported at the spring meeting of the New Mexico Geological Society. The presence of similar elemental ratios in both the porphyry copper deposit and the epithermal veins may provide data to determine the contribution of magmatic fluids to the formation of epithermal gold and silver deposits.