Geochemical Investigations of Stratabound Gunga Barite Deposits of Khuzdar (Balochistan), Pakistan

Abstract

Abstract: The Gunga barite deposits occur in carbonate clastic marine sequence of Jurassic age. These rocks are widely spread in Khuzdar‐Lasbela belt which host important stratabound barite and zinc‐lead deposits of Pakistan. These rocks are intricately folded and extensively faulted. The Gunga are low temperature hydrothermal deposits occurring as a series of disconnected lenses a few meters thick. Two mineralized horizons are recognized: barite in the upper zone, sphalerite and galena in the lower zone. Four types of barite mineralization occurs in Gunga stratabound replacement associated with 1) fracture filling, 2) open space fillings in solution collapsed breccia, 3) replacement in fault, and 4) veinlets associated with all these three types. The wall rocks of the Gunga deposits have also been altered by silicification, leaching and ferruginization.The sulfur isotope values of most of the Gunga barite samples range from 23.8 to 27.8 per mil with an average of 26.4 per mil, which is very close to the average of isotopic values of epigenetic carbonate hosted Late Paleozoic Missouri barite deposits. The Gunga like other barite and sulfide deposits of Khuzdar‐Lasbela belt are Mississippi Valley type, stratabound and of replacement origin precipitated from connate brines expelled during the incipient rifting of India from Gondwana land in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods. The low content of copper, lead and zinc in the Gunga barite deposits suggests that these deposits were not formed in proximity to an igneous source of the ore solution.The Gunga deposits are epigenetic and stratabound as their mineralization is structure controlled. There is an evidence of transgressive nature of host rock and wall rock alteration which are absent in stratiform or bedded deposits.