In this paper an occurrence of copper chloride within the northern part of the Iranian central desert is introduced for the first time. The Occurrence is located 70km southeast of Toroud village, close to alinarkha mountane, near Shahrood...
moreIn this paper an occurrence of copper chloride within the northern part of the Iranian central desert is introduced for the first time. The Occurrence is located 70km southeast of Toroud village, close to alinarkha mountane, near Shahrood in the Semnan province of Iran.
The study area is almost completely covered with a salt playa except for an outcrop of sedimentary rocks (with 30m height, 20m width, more than 10km length, and general trend of E-W) where the copper mineralization has been observed in its eastern part. The sedimentary rocks are mainly composed of Tertiary evaporate and detrital rocks including conglomerate, marl, sandstone, and Celestine strata.
Mineralization of Clinoatacamite and Nontakite (as main ore minerals) together with trace amounts of villamaninit in the host rocks (related to fractures), probable volcano-sedimentary basement of the host rocks with high background of copper as well as mineralization of copper minerals mainly in the Celestine strata are three considerable features of this occurrence.
Some of the other special features of the occurrence are:
- Mineralization of malachite and azurite as impregnation
- The strata bound and strati form nature of the ore body
- Probable relationship between mineralization and some structural units (faulting and folding)
- Existing of crosscutting faults in concentration zone of copper minerals
- The high copper content of the ore (around 11 percent).
