Appraisal of the Wadi Wassat and Wadi Adhbat pyrite deposits, Asir quadrangle, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Contributions to the geochemistry, economic geology, and geochronology of the Yemen Arab Republic

“…The depleted and the enriched elements in the samples of saprolite resemble those reported for chalcedony of secondary origin from unit TKys elsewhere in the YAR (Overstreet and others, 1976, p. 19-21). Indeed, the composition of the fresh rocks from unit TKyi of the Yemen Volcanics exposed at Manakhah (table 10) is remarkably similar to the minor-element content of rocks from units TKyi and TKy4 of the Yemen Volcanics exposed elsewhere in the YAR (Overstreet and other, 1976, The brief visit to the Sa'dah area, YAR, in 1979 confirmed the writers' earlier views (Overstreet and others, 1976, p. 33-55) that the gossan at Jabal Al Maidan was formed from the weathering of stratabound massive sulfides in volcaniclastic rocks of Precambrian age identical to deposits along strike in Saudi Arabia (Weissenborn and Earhart, 1968;Overstreet and Rossman, -1970;Jackaman, 1972;Dodge and Rossman, 1975;Overstreet and others, 1978;Roberts and others, 1978). This interpretation whose mapping and analyses was also adopted in the final report of the German Geological Advisory Group in the YAR (Schulze and Thiele, 1978, p. 30-40) for the deposit at Jabal Al Maidan, but the report noted chemical differences between groups of deposits in the Sa'dah area.…”

“…The gossans crop out along a northerlytrending strike length of 17 km, and the massive sulfide deposits beneath them have been described (Overstreet and Rossman, 1970) as pyrite and pyrrhotite interbedded in tuffaceous metasedimentary rock of andesitic composition and associated andesite. Weissenborn and Earhart (1968) appraised the results of the drilling and described thicknesses of pyrite and pyrrhotite of 35-40 m. No copper or other metals of commercial value were found although the total aggregate of material indicated by drilling was calculated at about 125 million tons containing more than 80 percent of pyrite and pyrrhotite.…”

Mineral deposits in western Saudi Arabia; a preliminary report

“…Weissenbom and Earhart (1969) have estimated that the reserves over a strike length of 6 km totalled 84 million tons of material averaging 80 percent massive sulfides to the depth of drilling which ranges from 80 to 125 m.…”