This mining district holds the famous occurrence of the banded layers, concretions, and stalactites of "Inca Rose" rhodochrosite, first described in the literature in 1873, and for which it is sporadically being mined for specimens and lapidary material.

But at various times in the past, the deposit was worked for its metals content, not the more famous rhodochrosite. Indigenous people probably mined the placers for gold in pre-Colombian times. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the area was mined by the Jesuits. From the 1850s onwards mining was carried out by Argentine and English companies, and later by the Argentine military.

Epithermal mineralization related to Miocene-Pliocene volcanism hosted in Paleozoic granite.

Yaciuk et.al (2021) comments that: "The Capillitas Mine deposit includes a set of hydrothermal veins of high to intermediate sulphidation, located in Miocene effusive rocks (rhyolites, dacites, lapillitic tuffs, rhyolitic and trachytic dikes, and basaltic dikes) corresponding to the Farallon Negro Volcanic Complex, and in Peraluminous granitic rocks, Ordovician to Silurian, of the Capillitas batholith".

Principal veins/mines are the Capillitas, Carmelitas, La Rosario, Ortiz, Restauradora, and 25 de Mayo veins. This is the most species-rich mining district in Argentina. The mineral deposition has been divided into six stages.

The Capillitas mine (Mina Capillitas) is a series of vein deposits rather than the one mine. There does not appear to be any distinguishing characteristics to establish form which vein/deposit any rhodochrosite has come from and it is suggested that they be labelled simply as Capillitas Mining district.

Geochronology

Mineralization age: Miocene : 9 Ma to 7 Ma

Important note: This table is based only on rock and mineral ages recorded on mindat.org for this locality and is not necessarily a complete representation of the geochronology, but does give an indication of possible mineralization events relevant to this locality. As more age information is added this table may expand in the future. A break in the table simply indicates a lack of data entered here, not necessarily a break in the geologic sequence. Grey background entries are from different, related, localities.

Geologic Time				Rocks, Minerals and Events
Phanerozoic
	Cenozoic
		Neogene
			Miocene	ⓘ Galena (youngest age) 7 Ma ⓘ Galena (oldest age) 9 Ma

Fossils

This region is too big or complex to display the fossil list, try looking at smaller subregions.

Other Databases

Wikidata ID:	Q6016869

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas that Intersect

References