Petrochemistry of igneous rocks of the California-Vetas mining district, Santander, Colombia: Implications for northern Andean tectonics and porphyry Cu (–Mo, Au) metallogeny

Abstract Porphyry Mo and Cu mineralization in the California-Vetas mining district is contemporaneous with 10.9 to 8.4 Ma granodiorite porphyry stocks and overprinted by Au–Ag mineralization of epithermal affinity. Mineralization is hosted by Grenvillian aged paragneisses (Bucaramanga Gneiss of the Santander Massif) and late Triassic to early Jurassic granitic rocks. All intrusive rocks are high-K calc-alkaline. Late Triassic to early Jurassic rocks include peraluminous granites with more than 70 wt.% SiO2 as well as metaluminous diorites, tonalites and granodiorites with SiO2 between 54.9 and 60.4 wt.%. Late Miocene rocks are weakly peraluminous granodiorite porphyries with SiO2 between 61 and 67 wt.% SiO2. Late Miocene rocks share some characteristics with adakite-like rocks which are widely associated with porphyry and epithermal style mineralization elsewhere in the Andes. They have high Ba (930 to 1500 ppm) and high Ba/La (28 to 50), high Sr (850 to 1100 ppm) and Sr/Y (48–78) and depleted middle rare earth elements (MREE) compared to the Mesozoic granites, which have 400 to 700 ppm Ba (Ba/La 14 to 25) and 80 to 150 ppm Sr (Sr/Y 2.5 to 14), and Mesozoic diorites and tonalites, which have ~ 900 to 1200 ppm Ba (Ba/La 20 to 32) and ~ 610 to 750 ppm Sr (Sr/Y 22 to 25). Miocene granodiorite porphyries, in contrast to Mesozoic intrusive rocks have only weak negative Eu anomalies. The Miocene rocks have 87Sr/86Sr ratios of 0.7052 to 0.7067 and εNd of − 1.9 to − 5.4 and are significantly more isotopically primitive than all other rocks in the study area including the Mesozoic diorites to tonalites (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7082 and 0.7092; εNd = − 6.7 and − 7.2), granites (87Sr/86Sr = 0.730 (n = 2); εNd = − 8.2 and − 8.3) and Bucaramanga Gneiss (0.718 to 0.743; εNd = − 10.8 to − 14.1). Lead isotope data are broadly consistent with the Sr and Nd isotope data and the Miocene porphyries have the lowest 207Pb/204Pb ratios but overlap with the Mesozoic diorites to tonalites in their 206Pb/204Pb and 208Pb/204Pb ratios. The geochemical signature suggests that late Miocene granodiorite porphyries represent oxidized and water-rich melts. However, in contrast to many other porphyry districts in the Andes, they do not have low Y (< 15 ppm) or depleted HREE, which together with the high Sr, Al and Na content indicates that neither plagioclase nor garnet were important residual phases in the MASH zone at the base of the crust. The trough shaped MREE suggest that amphibole was present in the source. The 87Sr/86Sr values of the Miocene rocks are consistent with a mantle derived melt which interacted with the radiogenic continental crust. The magmatism occurred above the shallow subducting Caribbean slab attributed to subduction of part of the Caribbean plateau (a.k.a. proto-Caribbean oceanic complex). It may be related to slab break-off and incursion of hot asthenospheric mantle, but dehydration of the Caribbean slab probably provided additional volatiles which made amphibole a major residual phase and provided water for the hydrous porphyry related magmas.