ABSTRACT
The Elatsite porphyry copper deposit is connected to dike intrusions with a Cretaceous age of 92.3+/−1.4 Ma. The earliest hydrothermal activity formed quarz Stockwerk veining and potassic alteration in the host rocks. In this phase, bornite, chalcopyrite, magnetite and microscopic PGE minerals precipitated. At the end of the polyphase porphyric intrusion phase and its associated potassic alteration, the main ore mineralisation with chalcopyrite+pyrite was formed. A later feldspar-destructive alteration overprinted all lithologies. Based on detailed field observations and laboratory work, the relations and relative time sequence of alteration, mineralisation and host rock lithologies could largely be unravelled.
