The Ghuzayn area contains two significant VMS Cu resources (Ghuzayn 2 and 3) buried at moderate depth beneath basalt and unconsolidated gravel cover. A prominent gossan to the east of the two known resources is considered to represent the weathered stockwork feeder zone of a separate hydrothermal vent system.

Ghuzayn 2
 
The Ghuzayn 2 resource was defined by JICA drilling, which defined a 300 x 200 m wedge-shaped body that dips steeply to the NNW away from a bounding southern fault. Although relatively large, the resource is relatively deep (100-270 m) and low-grade (4.75 Mt @ 1.4% Cu), meaning that extraction is not economically feasible at the present time.

Ghuzayn 3

The geometry of mineralisation at Ghuzayn 3 is similar to that of Ghuzayn 2 and was also defined by JICA. It consists of a wedge-shaped body of massive sulphide that dips to the WNW, away from a major bounding fault along its southern margin. The thickest part of the sulphide body occurs adjacent to the bounding fault, and overlies a narrow stockwork feeder zone. This geometry suggests that the Southern Fault was a syn-depositional extensional fault that focussed hydrothermal discharge, though possibly reactivated during later deformation.

The massive sulphides form a body 350 x 200 m in size, with an indicated resource of 10.1 Mt @ 1.94% Cu. Mineralisation occurs at the boundary between a lower massive basalt unit and an upper pillow basalt, with a layer of sulphidic sedimentary jasper forming a cap to the ore body. The precise stratigraphic position of the mineralisation remains unclear, though it is possible that the Ghuzayn 2 and 3 orebodies formed at the same stratigraphic level as the Ghuzayn gossan mineralisation, which has been interpreted to occur at the Geotimes-Lasail contact.

                                       Click to Enlarge