Geology and Mineralisation

The tenement area covers the outcrop of the Oued Amizour massif, a Miocene intrusive volcanic complex,  part of the Atlas mountain chain which stretches along the Mediterranean Sea in NW Africa.  The plutonic-volcanic complex comprises granitoids, overlain by two or three volcanic  and volcanoclastic series. The magmatic rocks belong to a potassic rich calc-alkaline series with ages varying from 24.4Ma to 12.4Ma.

At Tala Hamza, the volcanics comprise a number of wide units of  volcaniclastic and coherent rocks including breccias, lavas and sub-volcanic intrusives of andesitic and dacitic affinity.

The mineralisation occurs as a thick zone (from 40m to 300m) with an overall shallow south dip.  It covers an area almost 750m x 750m and is disconformable to the host volcaniclastic series. It is associated with strong hydrothermal alteration characterised by kaolinitisation, silicification, chloritisation, sericitisation and carbonatisation.  Several generations of faults bound and offset the mineralisation with at least one set of faults having a spatial association with high lead mineralisation and controlling the overall geometry.

The mineralisation at Tala Hamza shows a number of features of low temperature, epithermal deposits including colloform textures in sphalerite and pyrite, Fe-poor honey-coloured sphalerite and low temperature potassic alteration (adularia).

The mineralisation styles range from massive through submassive, stockworks, breccias and dissemination.  The breccias are often associated with replacement and infill vuggy textures.   The ore mineralogy is simple and consists of pyrite, sphalerite and galena. 

Geology at Oued Amizour- click to enlarge image