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Zinc-lead-barite deposits located of about 25 km northeast of Zakho city, Northern Iraq consist of a group of strata-bound sulfides hosted in Upper Cretaceous (Upper Campanian - Maastrichtian) dolomitic limestone. Deposits occur in Lefan and Lower Banik localities. In Lefan, carbonates hosted ore contain 3.77% Zn, 2% Pb, 3.7% Ba and 5 %Fe, while in lower Banik, they contain 1.5% Zn, 0.37% Pb,0.9% Ba and 1.4% Fe. The diagenetic processes such as dolomitization and recrystalization in addition to the type of microfacies provided appropriate physical and chemical conditions that permitted the passage of ore-bearing fluids and participated in precipitation and localization of ore.
These deposits are precipitated in platform and developed within Foreland Thrust Belt. Ore precipitated as infill of intergranular dolomite porosity with replaced dolomite and rudist shells forming disseminated crystals that occupy intergarnular pore spaces around dolomite and calcite; and infill of dissolution spaces and fractures.
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