North African Mississippi Valley‐Type Deposit and Its Link with the Alpine Chain Evolution

Abstract

Etymologically, Mississippi Valley-type deposits (MVTs) owe their nomenclature to the fact that several classic districts such as Upper Mississippi Valley, Southeast Missouri, Central Missouri, Tri-State and Northern Arkansas are located within the drainage basin of the Mississippi River in the Central United States. The MVTs account for 24% of the global resources for Pb and Zn, and 38% of the global tonnage for sediment-hosted deposits. In this chapter, the authors update their bibliographic database relative to the geological settings of the main MVT deposits and districts in North Africa by providing a synthesis on new mineralogical, petrographic and geochemical data. They constrain the origins and evolutionary history of the mineralizing plumbing systems, sources of sulfur and metals, mechanisms of metal transport and ore depositional processes, as well as the main ore controls and timing of mineralization. The authors propose reliable genetic models for exploration purposes.