Jabali, a Zn-Pb-(Ag) carbonate-hosted deposit associated with Late Jurassic rifting in Yemen

Abstract

The Jabali deposit (3.8 Mt at 16% Zn, 2% Pb and 132 g/t Ag) is hosted by dolomitized platform carbonates of Kimmeridgian age at the southwestern edge of the oil-producing Wadi al Jawf rift basin in northern Yemen. Paleogeographical reconstructions demonstrate that tensional synsedimentary tectonic activity from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous was responsible for the thick accumulation of argillaceous and evaporitic sediments in the subsident rift basin, the unstable margin of which was the site of rapid facies changes, local disconformities and periods of emergence, as well as of dolomitization along the WNW- and NNW-striking boundary fault system. In the Jabali area, the upper part of the Jurassic sequence underwent two stages of dolomitization before emergence and deep karstic erosion. Solution cavities and depressions in the eroded surface were filled by dolomite sand and black pyritic mudstone prior to a last marine transgression of limited extent. Subsequent ore deposition and associated late dolomitization sealed the network of solution cavities, impregnating the dolomite sands and the host dolomites. Sphalerite I and wurtzite, followed by silver-bearing zoned sphalerite II associated with galena, crystallized from a cyclic influx of low-temperature (75-100°C) saline solutions. Lead isotope geochemistry indicates that the lead, zinc and silver probably originated from an Early Proterozoic basement. The dissolved metals were likely derived from the basal aquifer (detrital material of basement origin) of the evaporite-bearing sequence filling the Wadi al Jawf trough. Migrating metalliferous brines from the basin to the uplifted Jabali area, where ore deposition was favoured by a reducing environment, were probably channelled by the boundary fault system during the last stages of synsedimentary tectonic activity.