SUPER PORPHYRY COPPER & GOLD DEPOSITS
VOLUME 1
GENERAL
I SOUTH
AMERICA
I NORTH
AMERICA
O th er titles in the G lobal P erspective series: Porphyry and Hydrothermal Copper & Gold Deposits: A Global Perspective ISBN 0-908039-71-9 Hydrothermal Iron Oxide Copper-Gold & Related Deposits: A Global Perspective • Volume 1 I SBN 0-9580574-0-0 Hydrothermal Iron Oxide Copper-Gold & Related Deposits: A Global Perspective - Volume 2 ISBN 0-9580574-1-9 Super Porphyry Copper and Gold Deposits: A Global Perspective - Volume 2 ISBN 0-9580574-3-5
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SUPER PORPHYRY COPPER AND GOLD DEPOSITS: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Volume 1 ISBN 0-9580574-2-7 First edition, October 2005
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Cover ph o to g ra p h: The Bingham Canyon open pit, Utah, USA, 1998. Photographs by T M Porter.
Ross Lang Andrew 1948-2005 This volume is dedicated to the memory o f Ross Lang Andrew, one o f the authors featured in this publication, who died peacefully at his home in Melbourne, Australia, in April 2005. Ross was born in Hamilton, Scotland, in 1948. He wanted to be a geologist from the age of nine and realised his ambition in 1971, graduating from Glasgow University with a B.Sc. Honours. He completed his PhD in Mining Geology in 1979 at Imperial College, London. His thesis, “The geology, mineralogy and geochemistry of selected metal gossans in southern Africa”，was the first o f many published contributions to economic geology. Stints with Palabora Mining Company, JCI and Anglovaal added to Ross’ southern African experience. After moving to Australia in 】 979, Ross, as a District Manager with CRA Exploration, led the team that discovered the Kintyre uranium deposit in Western Australia, establishing the existence o f a new unconformity-vein style uranium province in the Proterozoic of the Great Sandy Desert. Here, in charge of a large team o f young geologists and support staff involved in evaluation and regional exploration, Ross proved a much loved mentor o f young professionals; a mantle that he carried throughout his life. From here, his career took him to Melbourne in 1990, as a General Manager and Chief Geologist for CRA, subsequently Rio Tinto, responsible for project generation and evaluation around the world. His growing interest in porphyry style mineralisation led to the discovery o f the Wafi Cu-Au Porphyry in PNG and subsequent evaluation over four years and the discovery o f outcropping porphyry mineralisation in two locations in Mindanao, Philippines. During the next 15 years on his many excursions in the porphyry belts of the Americas, the Pacific Rim and elsewhere,