Reassessment of copper inactive and abandoned mines and indications of the Anarak area, Volume 1: Chah Palang Copper Deposit
  
   Abstract
   Copper and polymetal deposits of Anarak are located at north of the Esfahan Province. These deposits have a long history of exploitation. Old workings and smelting slag are distributed across Central Iran Great Desert from Dom Mountain (Qermez Cu-Au mine) to Doshakh Mountain (Chahpalang Au-W-Cu mine). Also there are remnants of traditional furnaces in the abandoned mines of the area showing the age of mines. What preserved so far, going back to the last period of exploitation by German experts at 1945, end of Second World War.
   The National Copper Industries Company started a project for reassessment of 10 abandoned mines in the area at 1999. The project was delivered to the Naien Mines Development Company through a contract who prepared the result of project as 10 separate reports.
   Chah Palang ore deposit is an ancient mine with old workings and slag distributed around it. Carried out study in the deposit area include review of available documents, geological and mineral assessment on the scales 1:5000 and 1:20000, ore microscopy, geochemistry, and geophysics. According to the executed exploration and drilling a borehole (115 m), it is not possible to conclude about the reserve of deposit, but the study shows that the deposit may contain favorable mineral resource and requires more detailed exploration.
   The Chah Palang deposit has occurred in a horst-like N-trending anticline affected by faults and fractures. Currently there is no surficial evidence of plutonic body as the source of mineralization. But the country rocks, i.e. the Jurassic sandstone and claystones show a weak metamorphism, so it is possible that an intrusive body to be exist at depth. Cu- Bi, Cu-Ni, Au-W, and Cu-pyrite mineralizations in the area are hypogene type. Copper grade reaches to 7.29%, W to 40000 ppm and Au to 600 milligram per ton. The relationship between mineralization phases is unknown. Mineralization has occurred in the veins and veinlets in the fault zones. Part of mineral deposit has extracted into depth of 15 m. The shape and dimension of mineralization is unknown and require more exploration.