Salih M. Awadh & Habib R. Habib & Khaldoon S. Al-Bassam
الملخص الانجليزي
Zinc–lead–barite deposits located in Lefan and
Lower Banik localities of about 25 km northeast of Zakho
City, Northern Iraq consist of a group of strata-bound
sulfides hosted in Upper Cretaceous (Upper Campanian–
Maastrichtian) dolomitic limestone. Carbonate-hosted ores
contain 3.77% Zn, 2% Pb, and 5% Fe, while in lower
Banik, they contain 1.5% Zn, 0.37% Pb, and 1.4% Fe.
Diagenetic processes, such as dolomitization and recrystalization
in addition to the type of microfacies, provided
appropriate physical and chemical conditions that permitted
the passage of ore-bearing fluids and participated in
precipitation and ore localization. These deposits are
precipitated in a platform and developed within the
Foreland Thrust Belt. Ore precipitated as infill of intergranular
dolomite porosity with replaced dolomite and
rudist shells forming disseminated crystals that occupy
intergranular pore spaces around dolomite and calcite and
as infill of dissolution spaces and fractures.