Porphyry Deposits of Northern Eurasia: Practical Aspects of Tectonic Control, Structural Features and Estimates of Depth of Erosion from the Urals to the Pacific

Abstract

Higher gold grades (0.1–1 g/t) in porphyry systems of northern Eurasia make them competitive with the Andean porphyries despite usually smaller volumes of mineralization and lower copper grades. It is concluded that porphyry systems of northern Eurasia occurred in island arc settings as did the porphyries of the West Pacific, contrary to the Andean continental magmatic arcs. The paper considers structural and tectonic control of porphyry clusters in northern Eurasia, as well as practical aspects to estimate the depth of erosion in porphyry systems.