Porphyry copper deposits: a plate-tectonics based distribution and occurrence model

A magmatic source of the metals is accepted. The characteristic metallogenic epoch and the migration of the mineralization event along an elongate metals province are explained as the result of subduction of an obliquely-oriented strip of mineral-enriched trails emanate from a hot-spot source of high-intensity hydrothermal activity in an oceanic rift. Because the whole plate system moves relative to hot spots, the hydrothermal source appears to migrate along the rift, and the two trails are not parallel to transform faults, but form a broad "V' centred on the hotspot. Source loci are spaced at intervals at about 3000 km, resulting in the possible repetition of metallogenic epochs, in a subduction zone province, at about 100 m.y. intervals. -from Autho