AEROMAGNETIC INVESTIGATION FOR COPPER DEPOSITS IN THE IGHERM REGION, WESTERN ANTI-ATLAS, MOROCCO

The Western Anti-Atlas region of Morocco is a world class region of metallic ore deposits including large copper deposits. The ore deposits are mainly in Neoproterozoic to Late Cambrian sedimentary and metamorphic rocks that have since their formation have been subjected to numerous tectonic episodes affecting the location of the ore deposits. Of importance are the so-called inliers that expose Proterozoic lithologies above the folded Paleozoic rocks. The majority of the copper deposits are located within these inliers. The Igherm inlier is composed of Cambrian sedimentary, and Proterozoic metamorphic and granitic rocks. While the Igherm inlier has been geologically explored, there remains many locations where exploration has been sparse, so, to remedy this situation, the available aeromagnetic data has been analyzed. The main focus of this analysis is to map the boundaries of the geological structures that constitute potential areas of copper mineralization. To accomplish this analysis, the data were reduced to the pole to facilitate the mapping of Ediacaran meta-volcanic rocks under the Lower Cambrian carbonates. To distinguish linear trends, the tilt angle map showed that the inlier has been was affected by a series of lineaments trending NNE-SSW, NW-SE, and E-W where each trend is associated with episodes of known deformations. Three-dimensional Euler deconvolution maps traced the geophysically defined structural blocks to be interpreted as orogenic metamorphic domes. These magnetically defined structures are major fracture systems that play an important role in the localization of copper mineralization in the Igherm inlier in the Western Anti-Atlas.