Handbook of strata-bound and stratiform ore deposits. Part 3. V9. Regional studies ans specific deposits / Практическое руководство по стратиформным месторождениям твердых полезных ископаемых. Часть 3. Региональные исследования и специфичные месторождения

Numerous detailed studies of stratiform  copper deposits reported in recent years have rejected the classic igneous-hydrothermal epithermal/telethermal origin for such mineralization, and have instead suggested that an origin intimately related to the processes of sedimentation would be much more suited to the observed character of these deposits. Overwhelming features, such as the widespread continuity of mineralization within a sedimentary basin and the distribution of mineralization within narrow stratigraphic limits, are commonly cited as evidence of sedimentary origins. However, such features do not exclude the possibility of diagenetic additions of ore metals to particularly favorable stratigraphic horizons, and in fact recent studies indicate repeatedly that one or more diagenetic events preceded the deposition of ore metals. For example, the deposition of iron sulfides, and in some cases sulfate-bearing minerals, is commonly observed to have occurred before the introduction of ore-stage metals. <...>