Geophysical Exploration of Disseminated and Stockwork deposits associated with plutonic intrusive: A Case study in the eastern flank of the western Cordillera, Colombia

Disseminated deposit exploration in the tropics suffers from difficult geological mapping due to thick vegetation, lack of rock outcrop, and extensive but variable saprolitic weathering. Geophysical exploration of these deposits normally includes magnetic, induced polarization and gamma ray spectrometry surveys. The largest RTP Total field magnetic anomaly highs are usually associated with the diorite porphyry intrusive bodies. Normally, diorites are less magnetic than the basaltic rocks. Therefore, where the magnetic anomaly highs are related to the intrusions they can be explained by the intensive mineralization of basic metals including magnetite that are associated with the porphyry intrusions. Regularly, the magnetic anomaly gradients help to delineate local discontinuities that can be interpreted as local faults and joints that can be mineralized. The gamma ray spectrometry is useful to determine the anomalous concentration of Potassium, Uranium and Thorium that can be interpreted in terms of alteration halos and linear discontinuities. The statistical analysis of the data also can determine the intermediate intrusive / extrusive nature of the porphyry intrusions. The use of gamma ray spectrometry helps to determine the concentration of elemental potassium, regardless of the associated potassium mineral species, enabling alteration mapping in a geological setting related to volcanic-associated massive sulphide base metals and gold. The induced polarization survey is useful in outlining sulphide distribution in porphyry deposits related to chargeability anomaly highs. The preliminary results of the geophysical exploration program of the eastern flank of the Western Cordillera in the Andes Mountains of Colombia are discussed.