Isotope Study of the Silver Bell Porphyry Cu Mine

Cu Isotope Study of the Silver Bell Porphyry Cu Mine Molly Dendas Ryan Mathur Spencer Titley  

Keywords Cu isotopes, leaching process, Cu fractionation, supergene 

The Silver Bell Mine is located thirty-five miles northwest of Tucson, at an elevation from 2,500 to 3,000ft. The mine consists of four open-pits and is located on 19,000 acres of land (Titley 1994). 

The Silver Bell Mine area consists of dipping units that are composed of dacite porphyry, alaskite and monazite. The rock ages span the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic periods. The Paleozoic wall rocks consist of quartzite, siltstone and altered limestone. The carbonate rocks are exposed along the contact between the host rock and intrusions, and host the 

Samples were handpicked from both drill cores and directly from the mine pit. The 

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