The Quinchía mine is a
gold mine
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
* Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
...
in
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
. The mine is located in
Quinchía
Quinchía, also known as ''Villa de los Cerros'' (''Village of the Hills''), is a town and municipality in the Department of Risaralda, Colombia. About 110 km away from the capital Pereira. In 2023 the town had an estimated population of 27,89 ...
,
Risaralda. The mine has estimated reserves of of
gold and of
silver.
[Quinchía mine]
/ref> In 2016, Quinchía produced of gold,[Gold]
- UPME and of silver.[Silver]
- UPME
Description
The Quinchía Project, covering an area of , encompasses multiple porphyry gold target centers that have been early stage drill tested in 2006. Three historic Miocene intrusive centers have been identified, spaced out over a north to south strike, and are at elevations between . These intrusive centers are composed of dyke
Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to:
General uses
* Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian"
* Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment
* Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice
* Dikes, ...
s and stocks emplaced in intermediate to felsic
In geology, felsic is a modifier describing igneous rocks that are relatively rich in elements that form feldspar and quartz.Marshak, Stephen, 2009, ''Essentials of Geology,'' W. W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. It is contrasted with mafic rocks, whi ...
volcanic rocks of the Miocene Combia Formation and in Cretaceous basalts. All target centers host gold and copper mineralization.[
The volcanic member of the Combia Formation is predominantly composed of basaltic and andesitic leaks, volcanic breccias and porphyry deposits of andesitic to dacitic composition. The mineralizations occur in porphyry veins in the andesitic sections without visible hydrothermal alterations.
Two types of structures are present; parallel veins with a 065-075 strike dipping 58 degrees to the west with variable thicknesses between and a principal vertical vein that is east-west oriented and between thick. These veins are mainly composed of quartz, chalcopyrite, pyrite and ]sphalerite
Sphalerite (sometimes spelled sphaelerite) is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula . It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in Sedimentary exhalative deposits, sedimen ...
. The average gold concentration is with zones up to of gold.
Additionally, a 1997 study performed by the ICP ICP may refer to:
Business
* ICP srl, Italian manufacturer of automotive equipment and kit aircraft
*Ideal customer profile: see Qualified prospect
* International Comfort Products Corporation, US air conditioning and heating company
* Indonesi ...
, revealed concentrations of more than 1000 ppm of copper, lead and zinc. The observed mineralizations suggest that they are related with a contact zone of porphyric intrusions into the Combia Formation and constitute fractures filled by fluids at a later stage.[Pardo & Salazar, 2013, p.69]
See also
*
* La Colosa mine
* Cerro Matoso mine
References
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinchia Mine
Gold mines in Colombia
Buildings and structures in Risaralda Department
2006 establishments in Colombia