The Las Aguilas Ni-Cu-PGE deposit is associated with a sequence of basic-ultrabasic rocks made up of dunite, harzurgite, norite and amphibolite. These igneous (partially metamorphosed) rocks, and their host granulites, gneisses and migmatites of probable Precambrian age, are highly folded. The sulphide ore, consisting of pyrrhotite, pentlandite and chalcopyrite, occurs in the cores of both antiform and synform structures, within dunite, harzburgite and mainly along shear zones in bronzitite, replacing small mylonitic subgrains. The platinum-group mineral assemblage is dominated by Pd bismuthotellurides (Pt-free merenskyite, palladian bismuthian melonite and michenerite), with minor sperrylite, and PGE-sulpharsenides. The latter often occur as single, zoned crystals frequently showing cores of irarsite; outside these are concentric zones of cobaltian hollingworthite, rhodian nickelian cobaltite and Fe-rich nickelian cobaltite.Mineralogical, textural and chemical evidence indicate that the sperrylite and platinum-group element sulpharsenides were formed during a primary magmatic event associated with the fractionation of a basaltic melt, which was contaminated by the assimilation of metamorphic crustal rocks. PGE sulpharsenides crystallized from As-bearing, residual magmatic liquids that collected PGE and segregated after the crystallization of the monosulfide solid solution. During high-grade metamorphism, sulpharsenides were remobilized as solid crystals in the liquated sulfides suffering partial dissolution and fracturing. On the other hand, there is no evidence of a primary concentration of Pd-bismuthotelluride minerals, and their present spatial distribution is only the consequence of their formation under high- to medium-grade metamorphism, down to temperatures of below 500°C. Pd bismuthotellurides crystallize even in fractures of sulpharsenides, attached to the boundaries of highly dissolved sulpharsenide crystals, and intergrown with molybdenite.
