Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

Lead and zinc can be counted among the main mineral resources of Morocco. The quantities of marketable ores produced during the last century exceeded 6.5 million tons for lead and reached 3.5 million tons for zinc.
Although often associated in nature, these two metals can occur individually as in the case of certain Moroccan deposits which are lead-only (Zeida, certain veins of Aouli, Sidi Lahcen, Beddiane and Mekta deposits) and others with dominant zinc (Ayat, Bou-Madine, Hajar, Draa Sfar, etc.). With regard to the geographical distribution of the occurrences of these metals, the inventory work and studies carried out throughout the country have shown that lead-zinc mineralisation exists in all the different structural domains of the country and concerns all the geological formations from the Precambrian to the Quaternary. However, the most important concentrations are located in the Atlasian domain, the limestone ridge and the Horsts countries. In Morocco, Pb-Zn mineralization is distributed mainly in the following structural and paleogeographic units:
- Polymetallic mineralization with an interesting lead-zinc content in the Middle Proterozoic basement.
- Stratiform lead in the infracambrian cover.
- In the Paleozoic (small veins in the Anti-Atlas, veins at Aouli and clusters in the Jebilets).
- The Triassic shows stratiform lead mineralization.
- The Jurassic appears to be the favourable host for the most important lead-zinc concentrations of the MVT type.
- Stratiform deposits of cretaceous et le Miocene.