Stratabound copper occurrence in Shalapo sandstone Of western Lut

Subject Areas :

عزت Eslamizadeh ¹ , SH Samanirad ² , Shohreh Hasanpour ³

1 - استادیار گروه مهندسی معدن، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد بافق
2 - کارشناس ارشد زمین شناسی اقتصادی، شرکت معدنجویان غرب آسیا
3 - استادیار گروه زمین شناسی، دانشگاه پیام نور، ایران

Received: 2016-09-04 Accepted : 2016-09-04 Published : 2016-08-22

Keywords: Iran, Sediment-hosted copper deposit, stratabound, Shalapo, Tabas block, Lut,

Abstract :

The study area is situated at the western part of Lut desert and southern Tabas block. The existing red bedsincluding Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous marl, mudstone, siltstone, sandstone and conglomerates are inKerman continental red formation and parts of Bidu and Gerdu formations. The host rock is a sub-maturelitharenite or calcic subarenite. The intergrowth of the coarse chalcocite and fine covellite crystals as darknodules filled the cavities and open spaces of the rocks. The mineral paragenesis is rutile, chalcocite, covelliteand malachite. Mineralization occurred in the lower sandstone due to dissolution and leaching the copper at thesurface layers and shift downward to the reduction zone beneath the water table. The copper amount is 1.5% andsilver is 11 ppm. According to the current study, Shalapo is a stratabound sediment-hosted copper deposit.