Age and geochemistry of host rocks of the Cobre Panama porphyry Cu-Au deposit, central Panama: Implications for the Paleogene evolution of the Panamanian magmatic arc

The crystallisation ages for intrusive rocks associated with mineralisation at Cobre Panama imply that the deposit formed in the early Oligocene, between a period of late Cretaceous to Eocene magmatism (ca. 66-42 Ma; Chagres-Bayano arc) and Cordilleran arc magmatism (22-7 Ma). Similarities in the timing of intrusive suite emplacement and the fingerprinting of magmatic fractionation processes between the Cobre Panama porphyry deposit and the Cerro Colorado porphyry deposit in western Panama (ca. 5.3 Ma) suggest that these features provide favourable geodynamic and geochemical prerequisites for the formation of porphyry deposits along the Panamanian magmatic arc during the Cenozoic.