Ultra-Deep Oxidation and Exotic Copper Formation at the Late Pliocene Boyongan and Bayugo Porphyry Copper-Gold Deposits, Surigao, Philippines: Geology, Mineralogy, Paleoaltimetry, and their Implications for Geologic, Physiographic, and Tectonic Controls

摘要

The Boyongan and Bayugo porphyry copper-gold deposits are part of an emerging belt of intrusion-centered gold-rich deposits in the Surigao district of northeast Mindanao, Philippines. Exhumation and weathering of these Late Pliocene-age deposits has led to the development of the world’s deepest known porphyry oxidation profile at Boyongan (600 m), and yet only a modest (30–70 m) oxidation profile at adjacent Bayugo. Debris flows, volcanic rocks, and fluviolacustrine sediments accumulating in the actively extending Mainit graben subsequently covered the deposits and preserved the supergene profiles.