Diatreme Breccias : Occurrences in Gold ±

Base Metal Epithermal and Porphyry Deposits

in the Philippines

+
+ +
+ + +
+ + + + Hernulfo B. Ruelo & Ciceron A. Angeles
1
Jr.
+ + + Philsaga Mining Corporation
+
 Diatreme
1930-35, Greek; diá “passing through”
+ trêma “hole”
Volker LORENZ 1970 : An Investigation of Volcanic Depressions
( Maars, Tuff Rings, Tuff Cones, and Diatremes )
NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Texas – Research Grant

Diatreme Breccia - breccia formed

explosively below and within the vent of
maars

2
 - small volcanic depressions, generally forming small lakes.
The explosions (phreatomagmatic ) are usually
Maars caused by the heating and boiling of groundwater when magma
invades the groundwater table.
Vulkaniefel, Germany, circular crater lakes
J. Steininger, 1819 = L. mare (sea) >>> Noll, 1967

tuff cone / tuff ring

( Diatreme )
water

Phreatomagmatic type of eruption

3
 base surge base surge

Mt. Tabaro Eruption Site 1965 Taal Volcano eruption

(1965 – 1977)

Taal Caldera 4
Seven (7) lakes of San Pablo

Laguna

Sampaloc lake, San Pablo

Alligator lake, Los Banos 5

MAARS Laguna

Wolfe 1986

6
Tuff apron, Alligator Lake, Laguna
 MAARS Lake Leonard

Tuff Apron

D.J. Kirwin - October 2011

7
El Teniente Chile
Giant Ore Deposits
• world’s largest breccia-hosted porphyry copper deposit
• 128 Mt Cu (20.7 Bt @ 0.62% + 0.019% Mo)

Rosia Montana Romania

• Europe’s largest breccia-hosted Au-Ag deposit
• 17.1 Moz Au + 81.1 Moz Ag (513Mt @ 1.04g/t Au and 5g/t Ag)

Wafi – Golpu PNG

• 644 Mt w/ 16 Moz Au, 4.8 Mt Cu, 55 Kt Mo (39 Moz Au Eqv)

Cripple Creek USA

• N. America’s largest, 6km x 5km, total resource +32 Moz Au 8
Acupan Philippines
• Classic ‘breccia pipe’, historically best known, one of
the oldest and longest running gold mine (+ 100 years
!!!) = +4 Moz Au

Mankayan Philippines
• largest diatreme complex, 9km x 5km
• linked epithermal – porphyry deposits = +40 Moz Au and
+8 Mt Cu

Boyongan Philippines
• world's deepest known porphyry oxidation profile (600 m thick)
• 1.5 Mt Cu + 8 Moz Au (250 Mt @ 0.60% Cu + 1 g/t Au)
9
Busang
‘the largest gold find in the world’ : 71 Moz Au but up
to 200 Moz as predicted

…in maar diatreme-dome complex

Felderhof et al., 1995. Mineralization in a maar diatreme-dome complex;
Busang Gold Deposit, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, paper presented to
PDAC 1995, Toronto.

10
 DESCRIPTIVE GENETIC
agglomerate

milled breccia
pyroclastics
fluidized breccia
volcaniclastics
polymictic breccia
multilithic breccia phreatomagmatic
pebble dike
heterolithic breccia
volcanic pipe diatreme
intrusive tuffs

breccia pipe hydrothermal breccia

phreatic breccia
monomictic breccia

tectonic breccia
11
 Diatreme
breccia

‘ break ‘ - tsa
➢ Fragmental
➢ volcanic / sub-volcanic; explosive
➢ Discordant/ cuts – vent or pipe

12
Breccia documentation

13
 Breccia documentation

Cutting hand specimen : BLOCKS for 3D visualization

14
Section View

15
 Volcanic Breccia

Phreatomagmatic Breccia

Fragmental
matrix

Magmatic – hydrothermal Breccia

Hydrothermal Magmatic
Breccia Breccia

Chemical
Igneous
cement
Stockwork cement

16
Tectonic Breccia
nine (9) major diatreme
breccia complexes

seventeen (17) localities

where they are currently
known to occur as minor
components in gold±base
metal deposits and
prospects

17
 Plan View
&
Dimension

Heine

18
Pre-mineral diatreme breccias are host
lithologies for porphyry copper and late-stage
epithermal intermediate-sulphidation disseminated
and vein-type gold deposits.
➢ Boyongan
➢ Acupan ➢ Placer
➢ Mankayan ➢ Tambis
In contrast, it gives an explanation as to why
epithermal gold veins terminate or die out in
diatreme breccia lithologies
➢ Co-O 19
Boyongan

Braxton
et al., 2009

20
Boyongan

21
Acupan Mine

22
Ruelo 2011
Acupan Mine

Redrafted from Benguet Corp 2009 23

Old Balatoc Plug

GW ore
24
Young Balatoc Plug

Outcrop along Dalicno Ck

25
Ruelo 2006
Young Balatoc Plug

26
Ruelo 2006
Mankayan Diatreme Complex
+ 40 Moz Au and +8 Mt Cu
Lepanto FSE

Victoria Guinaong
Teresa

Suyoc 1 km

27
Discovery vector : FSE

Sillitoe, GFAL Rept 1980s

28
Observed K-silicate altered porphyry Cu-Ay fragments

29
 Imbaguila diatreme outcrop

30
Dunkley 2014
Imbaguila diatreme

31
Dunkley 2014
 Bato diatreme : porphyry mineralized clasts

Dunkley 2014 32
 Placer mine Heine

33
Kirwin 2011
 Mineral Deposits at MMC
epithermal
KAINTUCK porphyry
RENO

EMMA HEINE
NENE
NELLIE
MINDORO 6 x 3 km
NTINA CLOUDBURST
KINTO LIMBO
SUYOC 1km
OPHELIA

GOLD DUST
VARONA
LEGASPI
TRES DE MAYO
MAPASO 34 Mabini et al., 2016
Section through Heine – Ntina looking E

Diatreme
Breccia

Diatreme
Breccia

Mabini et al.,
35 2016
 Placer Mine - 1983, NW-SE Section

Tuff / Breccia

100 meters

MGB, 1986. Geology and Mineral Resources of the Philippines, Vol II

Figure I. 12. after Aquino, 1983 36
 Diatreme Breccia, Heine Pit, Placer Au Mine Mabini et al.,
37 2016
Kirwin 2011
 Diatreme Breccia, Ntina, Placer Au Mine 38
Kirwin 2011
Tambis

500m

500 meters
39
Tambis

Bananghilig gold resource B2 Discovery Area

Diatreme Breccia

40
MAARS Tambis

Maar sediments with carbonaceous layers

41
Tambis

Intensely argillized diatreme

Hbx42
Tambis
Clast-supported breccia

‘Crackle’ breccia 43
matrix-supported breccia
Co-O mine

44
MAARS Co-O mine

accretionary Angeles et.al., 2012 45

Co-O mine

Maar sediments
Diatreme breccia

500 meters
46
Angeles et.al., 2012
Co-O mine
Co-O mine

Diatreme Breccia

Angeles et.al., 2012 47

Co-O mine

48
Magas

The Magas Intrusive

Complex is interpreted to be
an intrusion related diatreme
comprising coherent bodies
of andesite porphyry,
monomict andesite porphyry
breccias and polymict
breccias.

Indophil Resources NL, 2002 / Middleton, 2001

49
Magas

diatreme breccia Ruelo 2016

50
Magas

maar sediments Ruelo 2016

51
Tampakan

Middleton et.al., 200452

Syn-mineral diatreme breccias

53
Bulawan mine Bulawan

Pre- to syn-mineral ?
500 m

Nagtalay

54
Bulawan mine

55
Courtesy : Philex Gold Inc.
Panagsagan (Looc)
Pre- to syn-mineral ?

Courtesy : Philex Gold Inc.

Wolfe 1986 Breccia cemented by sulphides

56
Lumanggang
Pre- to syn-mineral ?

50m

57
Post-mineral diatreme breccias could
provide a vector to areas of concealed and/or deep-
seated porphyry copper-gold mineralization;
➢Far Southeast
➢MCB – Batong Buhay

it also allows one to consider that these late bodies

may destroy porphyry mineralization.
➢Guinaoang
➢Dizon
➢Sto. Niño - SW
58
Guinaoang

59
 Guinaoang
Imbaguila Diatreme

60
Redrawn from Sillitoe & Angeles 1985
Dizon mine

Pua Diatreme
61
Dizon mine

Malihan 1997

Redrafted from Malihan 1987 62

 Southwest orebody

Sto Nino mine 125 Mt @ 0.34% Cu + 0.26 g/t Au

Ullman orebody
38 Mt @ 0.34% Cu + 0.33 g/t Au

63
Sto Nino mine SW Orebody : A lithic-breccia diatreme post-
dates and cuts porphyry copper mineralization

64
Siana mine
Siana mine

Ruelo 2016 / Courtesy : GRC

65
MCB - Batong Buhay

Plan View Section View

66
Subang et al., 2006
MCB - Batong Buhay

diatreme

Porphyry copper

67
Subang et al., 2006
Salatan

lithic breccia with clasts

of silica-enargite
Ruelo, 2011 68
Other diatreme breccia occurrences

69
Red Mtn.

Ruelo et al, 2012

70
Red Mtn.

71
 Red Mtn.

72
Ruelo et al, 2012
 T’boli mine

Ruelo 2017 73
 Del Gallego

74
Courtesy : PDEP 2005
Pan de Azucar

Ruelo 2002
MRL Gold Phils Inc. - Mindoro Resources Ltd. 2002
75
Pan de Azucar

76
Ruelo 2003
Mapawa-Mabuhay

Corbett, 1995
77
Amacan

Daklan

Corbett & Leach 1997 78

Amlan – SW Negros
Mt. Paling-paling Sector Collapse

Small-scale copper workings

79
Ruelo 2013c
Ages & Mineralization styles Tampakan
Sto Nino-SW
Pisumpan
SW Bxa
Dizon MCB-BB
Acupan Boyongan
Mankayan Placer
Bulawan

Co-O Tambis

Red Mtn Salatan

Epithermal Au IS
Epithermal Cu-Au HS
Porphyry Cu-Au

80
Rock composition
Sto. Niňo-SW andesitic
Mankayan dacitic Pisumpan andesitic
SW Breccia andesitic
Acupan dacitic - andesitic
Salatan dacitic
Dizon dacitic - andesitic
Tampakan dacitic
Tambis dacitic - andesitic
Motherlode andesitic
Co-O andesitic Mapawa andesitic
Siana andesitic
Placer andesitic Lumanggang dacitic-andesitic
Mainit dacitic
Boyongan andesitic Pan de Azucar dacitic
Bulawan dacitic Red Mtn dacitic
Del Gallego dacitic
MCB - BB dacitic
Looc andesitic
Magas andesitic-dacitic
T'boli dacitic
81
Alteration
variable

➢ Advanced argillic
➢ Argillic
➢ Sericitic
➢ Chloritic
➢ Calcitic
➢ Gypsum-Anhydrite

Unaltered Extreme 82
 Structural control

District scale :
bends in
crustal-scale
structures

83
 Daklan

Geothermal
Systems

84
Geological setting
volcano-plutonic arc, high-level intrusions
domal features

dacite - andesite

caldera features

waning geothermal systems

85
Conclusion
• Wide variation in dimensions and geometry
• Correlation between diatreme size and deposit resource
• Can be pre-, syn-, and/or post-mineral (Epith-Porph)
• Ages : Plio-Pleistocene, as old as pre-Mid Miocene
• Recognition : Reinterpret fragmental rocks, best in 3D;
discordant; texturally variable; overprinted
• Preservation : erosion level dependent, ± concealment
• Petrology : dacitic to andesitic; sub-volcanic, ass’d with domes
• Alteration : variable AA,Ar,Se,Ch,Gy-An; unaltered, or extreme
• Targeting tool : host (disseminated/vein-fill/replacement) or
destroy mineralization, but gives clues to
deeper mineralization 86
Diatreme complexes are excellent exploration
targets for precious±base metal mineral deposits
• complicated, challenging but interesting rocks

• recognition of the different breccia types is

vital during the early stages of exploration,
and even in mature porphyry-epithermal
districts, and
• understanding its significance and origins is
critical but often overlooked

Thank You 87