T3C1 - Ore deposits: Porphyry Copper Deposit

🎙️ GeoEstima Podcast is back! In this third season, we’ll be diving into the most important deposits in modern mining. We’re kicking things off with copper porphyries — a key deposit type in Chile.

🎙️ Did you know that modelling a copper porphyry deposit is like reading millions of years of geological processes… with billion-dollar implications? This isn’t just geology — data, geostatistics, uncertainty, and decision-making. So, how do we turn scattered data into a reliable resource model?

🎙️ As the name suggests, a copper porphyry contains significant copper concentrations. The term "porphyry" refers to the texture of the intrusive rocks associated with the mineralisation. These deposits are the world’s main source of copper, accounting for more than half of global production, and are also significant sources of molybdenum, rhenium, and gold.

🎙️ Copper porphyries are Cu-Mo (Au) systems in magmatic arcs along convergent tectonic margins. The mineralisation is typically linked to small intrusive stocks and associated breccias emplaced at shallow depths, between 1 and 6 km.

🎙️ If you're keen to understand what copper porphyries are and why they’re so crucial to the mining world, don’t miss this new episode — and keep learning and discussing the geo-mining-metallurgical business in Chile and globally.