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Geology, Fluid Inclusions, and Geochemistry of the Aouli Sulphide ± Fluorite ± Barite Vein Deposit (Upper Moulouya District, Morocco) and Its Relationships to Pangean Rifting and Opening of the Tethys and Central Atlantic Oceans

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Mineral Deposits of North Africa

Part of the book series: Mineral Resource Reviews ((MIRERE))

Abstract

The Aouli Pb–Zn ± F ± Ba deposit in the upper Moulouya district of central Morocco consists of an array of multi-kilometer, transtensional, sub-vertical veins grouped into four main systems referred to as Aouli, Ansegmir, Sidi Said, and Sidi Ayad. Collectively, these veins produced ~10 Mt of ore at a grade of 5 % Pb. Host rocks are a succession of folded and low- to medium-grade metasedimentary and minor metavolcanic rocks of Cambro-Ordovician age locally intruded by the multiphase ca. ~330–319 Ma Aouli batholith. The veins occur either within the Aouli granitic intrusion (i.e., Ansgemir), Cambro-Ordovician schistose pelites (i.e., Aouli, Sidi Said), or both (i.e., Sidi Ayad). Overall, the orebodies exhibit very low Zn/Pb ratios, and contain 150–600 g/t Ag and 200–700 g/t Bi. Hydrothermal alteration is weakly to moderately developed in the vicinity and surrounding the veins, and is dominated by intense silicification coupled with minor sericitization, both types being superimposed on regional propylitic alteration. The sulphide mineralization consists principally of varying proportions of galena and sphalerite, and to a much lesser extent chalcopyrite and pyrite. Gangue minerals include multiple generations of quartz and paragenetically later fluorite and barite. Combined fluid inclusion data together with stable and radiogenic isotopic constraints indicate that the Aouli vein-type sulphide ± fluorite ± barite mineralization formed during the Permian-Jurassic contemporaneously with Pangean rifting and subsequent opening of the Tethys and Central Atlantic oceans. Mixing at the basement-cover interface of an ascending, deep-seated fluid that equilibrated with Hercynian crystalline basement rocks, and formation and/or meteoric water, is proposed to have triggered ore deposition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Géologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université Mohammed Premier, Avenue Mohammed VI, B.P. 717, 60000, Oujda, Morocco

    Mohammed Bouabdellah & Daoud Margoum

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  1. Mohammed Bouabdellah
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  2. Daoud Margoum
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Correspondence to Mohammed Bouabdellah .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Earth Sciences, Mohammed Ist University, Oujda, Morocco

    Mohammed Bouabdellah

  2. U.S. Geological Survey (Emeritus), Farmington, Maine, USA

    John F. Slack

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Bouabdellah, M., Margoum, D. (2016). Geology, Fluid Inclusions, and Geochemistry of the Aouli Sulphide ± Fluorite ± Barite Vein Deposit (Upper Moulouya District, Morocco) and Its Relationships to Pangean Rifting and Opening of the Tethys and Central Atlantic Oceans. In: Bouabdellah, M., Slack, J. (eds) Mineral Deposits of North Africa. Mineral Resource Reviews. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31733-5_11

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