Annales de la Société géologique de Belgique Annales de la Société géologique de Belgique -  Publications spéciales = special publications  Gisements stratiformes et provinces cuprifères - Centenaire de la Société Géologique de Belgique, 1974 

The Timna copper deposit

Y. Bartura, 

Timna Copper Mines, Elat, Israel.

U. Würzburger, 

Timna Copper Mines, Elat, Israel.

Abstract

The Timna copper deposit is a stratiform ore body of lowermost Cambrian age. The copper bearing strata consist of fine grained, bedded sandstones, shales, clays and lenses and layers of sandy dolomite indicating a shallow sea. They overlie a Precambrian basement complex which contains minor amounts of pyrite and copper sulphides.

The deposit lies on the fringe of the Dead Sea Rift Valley. It is highly faulted but no connection exists between faulting and mineralization.

Main copper minerals are chrysocolla, malachite, pseudomalachite, bisbeite and plancheite distributed in cracks, veinlets, lenses, joints, bedding planes and disseminated throughout the sediments.

Very extensive diagenetic processes resulted in migration of the copper.

No evidence was found for the existence of a primary copper ore body and no sulphides are known.

Pour citer cet article

Y. Bartura & U. Würzburger, «The Timna copper deposit», Annales de la Société géologique de Belgique [En ligne], Publications spéciales = special publications, Gisements stratiformes et provinces cuprifères - Centenaire de la Société Géologique de Belgique, 1974, 277-285 URL : https://popups.uliege.be/0037-9395/index.php?id=3505.