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The trace and rare earth element contributions to the understanding of Chouichia iron-copper deposits in Northern Tunisia: metal sources interrelated with magmatism and metamorphism

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Abstract

The Chouichia ore deposits are one of the most important polymetallic Cu-Fe-rich mineralizations located in the front of the thrust zone of the Tunisian Tellian belt. This mineral occurrence is carried by veins and breccias hosted by the Upper Cretaceous to Oligocene-Lower Miocene sediments in the Fej Et Tamer tectonic corridor. Geochemical work carried out on host rock and mineral samples shows an enrichment and fractionation of REEs with Eu negative anomalies due to interactions of hydrothermal fluids with Eu-depleted magmatic rocks presumably lying in the subsurface. Co/Ni ratios help distinguish three pyrite generations. Pyrite I disseminated in the host rock is sedimentary-syngenetic, formed at low temperature (Co/Ni < 1), whereas Co contents of late pyrites (Pyrites II and III) associated with hydrothermal venues are particularly high, up to 26,000 ppm, never mentioned before at Chouichia, but corroborate elsewhere results documented for this mineral in literature. Magmatic fluid imprints are marked by Co/Ni >1 and confirmed by varying Y/Ho ratios (range 19.625 to 36.5). Trace element amounts normalized to the average contents of trace metals in primitive mantle testify to a metal source from the upper crust and upper mantle with high enrichments of ore bodies in As, Sb, Cu, Pb, Ag, Au, W, and Mo. Marked depletions in Hf, Zr, and Sc indicate their high fractionation degree in both mineralizing and magma fluids and/or igneous rock/fluid interaction effects in the subsurface. Positive anomalies of magmaphile trace element markers such as Mo and W support high-temperature mineralizing fluids driven by magmatism. These geochemical characters easily allow the classification of Chouichia veins as a hydrothermal affiliation deposit type where fluids are imprinted by magmatism and metamorphism. Deep-rooted faults in the Fej Et Tamer tectonic corridor have had an essential role in metal transfer, fluid conveying to the surface, and mineral formation.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Physics of Lamellar Materials and Hybrid Nanomaterial Research Unit, University of Carthage, Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte, Tunisia. The authors warmly thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments thus improving the final version of the manuscript. Fruitful discussions with Colleagues from the Department of Geology (Mabrouk Boughdiri, Rabah Alouani), Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte and Pr. Maurizio Barbieri from Sapienze University (Rome, Italy) also gave significant support to the main interpretations and concluding remarks. The authors are also grateful towards the Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories, Vancouver, Canada Ltd., for ICP-MES trace element analyses and gold assays and determinations by AAS, the Laboratories of Carthage University-Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte for TEM analyses, and the Technicians from the ETAP petroleum company for SEM-EDS measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte, University of Carthage, Bizerte, Tunisia

    Rania Ben Aissa, Wiem Ben Aissa, Abdessalem Ben Haj Amara & Lassaad Ben Aissa

  2. Research Unit, Physics of Lamellar Materials and Hybrid Nanomaterials, Bizerte, Tunisia

    Rania Ben Aissa, Wiem Ben Aissa, Abdessalem Ben Haj Amara & Lassaad Ben Aissa

  3. Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University Tunis-El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia

    Saïd Tlig

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  1. Rania Ben Aissa
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  2. Wiem Ben Aissa
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  3. Abdessalem Ben Haj Amara
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  4. Lassaad Ben Aissa
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Correspondence to Rania Ben Aissa.

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Responsible Editor: Domenico M. Doronzo

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Ben Aissa, R., Ben Aissa, W., Ben Haj Amara, A. et al. The trace and rare earth element contributions to the understanding of Chouichia iron-copper deposits in Northern Tunisia: metal sources interrelated with magmatism and metamorphism. Arab J Geosci 14, 783 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-07095-2

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