Physicochemical attributes of potassic alteration zone in Sarkuh porphyry copper deposit; using biotite and chlorite chemistry

Sarkuh porphyry copper deposit is located 180 km west of Kerman province, 6 km southwest of Sarcheshmeh porphyry copper mine in the northeast of Pariz city. Considering geological divisions, it is a part of Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic arc. The exposed rocks in this area are mainly composed of volcanic units, tuffs, andesite and basaltic andesite. Also intrusive units include granite to granodiorite, and to a lesser extend quartz diorite rocks. Major alterations of the deposit include potassic, phyllic, argillic and propylitic, as well as intermediate alterations such as potassic - argillic and potassic - phyllic. The purpose of this research is to study the chemical features of biotite and chlorite in order to investigate the physicochemical attributes of porphyry system during magmatic to hydrothermal transition in the patassic alteration. Based on the temperatures of reequilibrated biotite, at the time of magmatic to hydrothermal transition, the temperature ranged from 343 to 397°C. Also high magnesium nature of biotites, and their plotting in the boundary of magnetite-hematite (HM) and nickel-nickel oxide (NNO) buffering lines, as well as presence of magnetite with hematite rims indicate previlling of the high oxygen fugacity during potassic alteration.