Lead and zinc geochemical behavior based on geological characteristics in Parkam Porphyry Copper System, Kerman, Iran

Abstract

Parkam (Sarah) porphyry system is located on the metallogenic belt of Kerman, Iran. Due to existence of some copper-rich resources in this region, finding out the exact statistical characteristics such as distribution of data population, mean, variance and data population behavior of elements like Cu, Mo, Pb and Zn is necessary for interpreting their geological behavior. For this reason, precise calculation of statistical characteristics of Pb and Zn grade datasets was performed and results were interpreted geologically. The natures of Pb and Zn distributions were initially identified and their distributions were normalized through statistical treatment. Subsequently, the variograms were calculated for each exploration borehole and show that both Pb and Zn geochemical variates are spatially correlated. According to the similarity of the behavior of Pb and Zn in these calculations, it is decided to measure their exact behavior applying K-means clustering method. K-means clustering results show that the Zn grade varies linearly relative to that of Pb values and their behavior is similar. Based on the geochemical behavior similarity of Pb and Zn, throughout the pervasive secondary hydrothermal activity, they are remobilized in the similar manner, from the deep to the shallow levels of the mineralization zones. However, statistical analysis suggests that hydrothermal activity associated with secondary waters in Parkam is effective in remobilizing and enriching both Pb and Zn since they have similar geochemical characteristics. However, the process does not result in generation of economic concentrations.

Keywords

Parkam / porphyry copper / Pb / Zn / statistical analysis / K-means clustering

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