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 Sim ply Folded Belt of the Zagros Mountains in southwestern Iran, is an orogen- related Mississippi Valley type deposit originally formed in the foreland T hrust Belt of the Zagros Mountains. Structural and textural observations in dicate that ore deposition took place as open-space fillings in brecciated carbonate rock and as internal sediments consisting of fine-grained ore min erals interlayered with carbonates. The preferred genetic model for the con centration of the ore metals is that of dewatering of the Zard-Kuh basin du e 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 degrees C), typically within strat a of a Late Paleozoic carbonate platform.