Potassic Igneous Rocks and Associated Gold-Copper Mineralization

Book excerpt: Potassic igneous rocks have gained much attention among petrologists worldwide, mainly due to their distinct geochemistry, and many geoscientists still consider them as petrological curiosities with an obscure petrogenesis. In the past, a plethora of genetic hypotheses and of local names for potassic igneous rocks from different localities have been created. This has produced some confusion in the literature. This book reviews the geochemical and petrological characteristics of the potassic igneous rock complexes and investigates the different tectonic settings in which these rocks occur. The authors provide an overview and a classification of these rocks and attempt to elucidate the geochemical differences between barren and mineralized potassic igneous complexes. Many epithermal gold and porphyry copper-gold deposits are hosted by high-K rocks. Therefore, this book is not only relevant to academic petrologists working on alkaline rocks, but also to exploration geologists prospecting for epithermal gold and/or porphyry copper-gold deposits in modern and ancient terranes. This third, updated and enlarged edition contains several new sections, new geochemical data and additional references.