The Kuh-e-Surmeh mineralization, a carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb deposit in the Simply Folded Belt of the Zagros Mountains, SW Iran

The Kuh-e-Surmeh carbonate-hosted zinc-lead deposit, located within the Simply Folded Belt of the Zagros Mountains in southwestern Iran, is an orogen-related Mississippi Valley type deposit originally formed in the foreland Thrust Belt of the Zagros Mountains. Structural and textural observations indicate that ore deposition took place as open-space fillings in brecciated carbonate rock and as internal sediments consisting of fine-grained ore minerals interlayered with carbonates. The preferred genetic model for the concentration of the ore metals is that of dewatering of the Zard-Kuh basin due to regional tectonic compaction tectonism and expulsion of basin-derived fluids into the highly porous and brecciated dolomitized rocks of the Dalan Formation. The metals precipitated from dense basinal brine (15 wt% equiv. NaCl) at low temperatures (less than 200 °C), typically within strata of a Late Paleozoic carbonate platform. Received: 21 July 1998 / Accepted: 20 August 1999