Geology: Magmatism and the metallogenic implications of theBoudoufoud Buttonhole (Eastern Meseta, Morocco)

The Terni-Mazgout (Boudoufoud) Hercynian massif, located in Morocco's eastern Meseta, consists of a Visian-age schist-sandstone metasedimentary sequence, intruded by a zoned granitoid body (259±11 Ma) and altered by polyphasic hydrothermal processes (sericitisation, chloritization, muscovitization, and greisization). The mineralization occurs as disseminated deposits or as fracture fillings, forming three distinct vein families: N30-N45 (pyrite-chalcopyrite-stibnite in quartzite matrix), N110-N120 (hematite), and N150-N160 (barite-carbonates-quartz). The entire Paleozoic basement is overlain in angular discordance by a Mesozoic sequence, whose Triassic red clays with doleritic basalt intercalations constitute a potential source of iron for the observed supergene oxidation cap. These characteristics are indicative of a multiphase magmatic-hydrothermal system, with epithermal and supergene overprints, within a structural context of fracturing inherited from the Hercynian orogeny.