BULLETIN OF THE SOCIETY OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGISTS
Vol. 111 August No. 5
Discovery, Geology, and Origin of the Fruta del Norte Epithermal Gold-Silver Deposit,
Southeastern Ecuador*
Stephen Leary,1 Richard H. Sillitoe,2,† Peter W. Stewart,3 Karl J. Roa,4 and Benjamin E. Nicolson5
1 219a Mount Aspiring Road, Wanaka 9343, New Zealand
2 27 West Hill Park, Highgate Village, London N6 6ND, England
3 The Valley Geological Services Inc., 83 South St. West, Dundas, Ontario L9H 4C7, Canada
4 Glenvar, Cross Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin, Ireland
5 Geological Survey of South Australia, Level 4, 101 Grenfell St, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia
Abstract
Fruta del Norte is a completely concealed and extraordinarily well preserved epithermal gold-silver deposit
located in the remote Cordillera del Cóndor mountain ranges of southeastern Ecuador. Currently defined
resources in a single, steep, relatively small body, displaying exceptional grade continuity, contain 9.81 million
ounces (Moz) of gold and 15.0 Moz of silver, with an indicated resource grade of 9.59 g/t Au and 12.9 g/t Ag.
The deposit was discovered in early 2006 during a greenfields program conducted by Aurelian Resources,
a Canadian junior explorer. Discovery resulted from systematic drill testing of a conceptual geologic model,
which predicted that auriferous veins would be present in andesitic volcanic rocks inferred to underlie a steep
silicified rib cutting a fluvial conglomerate sequence. The rib is highly anomalous in arsenic, antimony, and
mercury but contains low-order gold values. The second drill test—the discovery hole—intersected >230 m of
ore-grade gold-silver mineralization beneath ~200 m of the barren conglomerate cover.
The host andesitic volcanic rocks, crosscutting feldspar porphyry, and associated phreatic breccias are
assigned to the Piuntza unit of the Santiago Formation, which, along with the Zamora batholith and a series of
porphyry copper stocks, was generated in a continental margin magmatic arc during the Middle to Late Juras-
sic. The deposit is located near the northeastern extremity of the ~10-km-long, Suárez pull-apart basin where
it is linked to the steep West and Central faults, part of the regionally extensive Las Peñas strike-slip fault zone.
The pull-apart basin was progressively filled by fluviatile conglomerate, dacitic ignimbrite flows, finer grained
siliciclastic sedimentary rocks, and, finally, andesite flows, all assigned to the Chapiza Formation.
The Fruta del Norte deposit consists of a 1.3-km-long and up to >300-m-wide vein-stockwork associated
with quartz-illite-pyrite alteration. The deposit comprises two principal vein types, one in the south dominated
by quartz, manganoan carbonates, and abundant base metal sulfides and the other in the north dominated by
manganese- and base metal-poor quartz and calcite. Adularia is a minor main-stage gangue mineral in each.
Both types are abruptly transitional upward and westward to a third ore type marked by intense silicification and
chalcedony veining, with disseminated and veinlet marcasite (±pyrite). The uppermost part of this silicic zone
is sulfide deficient, probably the result of a short-lived supergene oxidation event prior to initial conglomerate
deposition. The deposit is notable for the widespread occurrence of fine to coarse visible gold, which gives rise
to bonanza grades and is closely associated with quartz, chalcedony, carbonate, and sulfide gangue.
The sulfide-free, silicic zone is overlain by an extensive silica sinter horizon, which may either directly overlie
the Piuntza volcanic rocks and/or occur as interbeds in the basal 20 m of the conglomerate, which are invariably
silicified and marcasite bearing. Otherwise, the conglomerate above the orebody lacks silicification, with one
critical exception: the steeply inclined zone that is exposed as the silicified rib that led to discovery. The sinter
horizon, containing localized mud-pool deposits and hydrothermal eruption breccias, is in unusual proximity to
the underlying gold-silver orebody.
The northern and southern parts of the Fruta del Norte deposit possess characteristics that are usually con-
sidered typical of low and intermediate sulfidation epithermal deposits, respectively; they may have required
two discrete mineralizing fluids, both of which are suspected to have ascended via the West and Central faults.
*A data repository for this paper is available at http://economicgeology.org/ and at http://econgeol.geoscienceworld.org/.
©2016 by Economic Geology, Vol. 111, pp. 1043–1072 Submitted: November 14, 2015
0361-0128/16/4410/1043-30 1043 Accepted: March 14, 2016
1044 LEARY ET AL.
The upward change to the silicified zone is attributed to cooling of the ascendant fluid on approach to the paleo-
surface sinter. Progressive burial of the deposit beneath the Suárez basin fill may have contributed to the sup-
pression and eventual extinction of the epithermal system, with gold mineralization of the conglomerate being
inhibited by rheologic and chemical factors. Formation of the Fruta del Norte deposit and complete filling of
the Suárez basin took place in >3 to 6 m.y. during the Late Jurassic (<160 to >157–154 Ma).
Introduction
90ºW 80ºW
The Fruta del Norte deposit is a major high-grade, bulk-mine-
A Cocos Plate South American Plate
able epithermal gold-silver vein-stockwork system located in 0º
the remote, jungle-covered Cordillera del Cóndor mountain Carnegie Ridge Ecuador
range in the Andes of southeastern Ecuador, 6 km from the
Galápagos
border with Peru (Fig. 1). With an indicated resource of 23.5 7 cm/yr Area
million metric tons (Mt) averaging 9.59 g/t Au and 12.9 g/t Ag B enlarged
(at a cutoff grade of 3.4 g/t Au) and total contained endow- Nazca Plate
ment in all categories of 9.81 million ounces (Moz) of gold 5ºS
and 15.0 Moz of silver (Evans et al., 2014), the deposit is one Subduction zone
of the premier gold discoveries of the last 50 years. Fracture zone
Besides its obvious economic pedigree, Fruta del Norte is
also noteworthy for its high degree of preservation and antiq-
uity, the mineralization being Jurassic in age. While several B 78.5ºW
+
Epithermal Au deposit
+
vein-type epithermal gold deposits, including Hishikari, Japan 3ºS + +
SL< < Porphyry
Skarn Au deposit
(Izawa et al., 1993), Ivanhoe, Nevada (Bartlett et al., 1991), +
+
Trias. Jurassic Cretaceous
and McLaughlin, California (Lehrman, 1986; Gustafson, + + + Cu-Au
or Cu-Mo +
deposit
Sedimentary and
1991), have suffered little erosion and retain remnants of volcanic rocks + +
paleosurface features (e.g., hot-spring sinter, hydrothermal
~~~~~~ SC<
+ W< + +
eruption breccias, mud pools, steam-heated alteration zones;
P<
+ + + +
see Sillitoe, 2015), the Fruta del Norte deposit is uniquely Zamora batholith
preserved in its entirety because of progressive synhydrother- + + + + + +
Ecuador Perú
mal burial and the fact that it has yet to be unroofed. Although v Piuntza unit + + + + +
v
most epithermal deposits are Cenozoic in age, a few apprecia- + +
Paleo Metamorphic and +
bly older, chiefly Mesozoic examples are also known (Kesler -zoic sedimentary rocks +
and Wilkinson, 2009). However, of these, only Brucejack in + +
Major fault +
British Columbia, Canada (Board and McNaughton, 2013) +
Thrust fault + +
and Balei in Siberia, Russia (Spiridonov et al., 2010) match + + +
+
Fruta del Norte’s total gold endowment. +
+
This paper begins by summarizing the events and exploration
activities that led to the discovery of Fruta del Norte beneath
+Fig. 5 M<+ +
>130 m of essentially barren, syn- and predominantly post- + +
mineralization volcanosedimentary cover. It then describes + + + +
the regional geologic setting, followed by the deposit-scale + + +
geology based on drill sections spaced at 100-m intervals over +
Fruta
+ del Norte
v v +
the 1.3-km strike length of the deposit and 50-m intervals in + v v
+ BL P v International
the high-grade core. Particular attention is paid to the well- v
v + + border
v
developed mineralogic, geochemical, and textural zoning that v + v + v
+
v
defines four discrete ore types, and the relationship of these + + v
v
zones to immediately overlying paleosurface features. Finally, v +
+ v
+
some of the key geologic elements and processes thought to 4ºS v + +
+ + Perú
have been instrumental in deposit localization, metal zoning, N +
C +
+ + + + +
v +
+ v
+
Fig. 1. Regional setting of the Fruta del Norte epithermal gold-silver deposit, + Santiago
+ + + + basin
southern Ecuador. A. Current plate tectonic context of Ecuador, showing v
the location of (B). Modified from Rosenbaum et al. (2005). B. Simplified v
+ + +
regional geology and principal mineral deposits of southeastern Ecuador v + +
and contiguous Peru. Note that, for sake of clarity, the postmineralization + v +
Cretaceous cover has been removed from the Zamora batholith along the v v + + +
Pangui copper belt. Deposit abbreviations: BLP = Bonza-Las Peñas, C = + +
Chinapintza, M = Mirador, N = Nambija, P = Panantza, SC = San Carlos, SL
+ +
= San Luis, W = Warintza. Faults taken from Eguez et al. (2003), Peruvian + + + km
+ + + 0 10 20
geology from Quispesivana (1996) and Quispesivana and Zárate (1999), and Ecuador Perú
ú N
Piuntza unit at Nambija from Fontboté et al. (2004). + +
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