Gardaneh Salavat porphyry copper system: Is it about metal endowment or fertility of the porphyritic intrusion?

Gardaneh Salavat porphyry copper system is located in the northwest of Iran. It comprises a quartz diorite to diorite porphyritic intrusion that created extensive alteration haloes in the host rocks. Despite all technical considerations, the exploration activities did not yield to ore discovery. As the matter of fact, all of the geological, geophysical, and geochemical characteristics of a porphyry Cu-Au deposit exist but there is no economic mineralization. Detailed examinations suggest that the only reasonable explanation can be related to the infertility or low metal endowment of the porphyritic intrusion. The reasons include (1) anomalous ranges of Cu, Au, and Mo rather than economic ore grades, (2) weakly development of potassic alteration, (3) probably sulfur saturation of magma that occurred before intrusion emplacement in the host rocks, and (4) probably low metal endowment in the regional scale and the lack of known porphyry copper deposits in close neighborhoods. It is tried to test the proposed hypothesis with the introduced fertility indicators based on major and trace element geochemistry. However, current fertility indicators could not prove or reject the proposed hypothesis for Gardaneh Salavat porphyritic intrusion because of the high-K calc-alkaline to shoshonitic nature of the intrusive rocks together with the unavailability of relatively fresh/unaltered samples. This case study is notable to examine because (1) it shows that characterization of fertile from barren intrusions seems to be as important as vectoring towards concealed porphyry copper deposits, especially while dealing with deep exploration targets that are associated with high financial risks, and (2) it highlights the inefficiencies and uncertainties in introduced magma fertility indicators for porphyry copper intrusions. As a result, it is of high importance to conduct an overarching investigation on other possible fertility indicators as a fundamental need for the future of the exploration industry.