A comparison between biogeochemical and secondary lithogeochemical halos in order to explore copper deposits and analyzing different stage of preparation and analytical errors in Darreh-Zerreshk mining area

The objective of this research is an investigation on variations and relationship between different elements in soil and various plant species in Darreh-Zerreshk mining area and its comparison between elements distribution in barren zones. On the basis of this research can propose a suitable geochemical exploration for discovering hidden ore deposits in the district and peripheral zones. For this purpose, 32 samples from two different fractions of B-horizon of soil from mineralized and barren zones and 29 plant samples from different species were taken and after preparation were analyzed for copper, iron, lead and zinc by AAS analytical method. In the first stage by preparation and analysis of duplicate samples, the different stage errors were analyzed and concluded that the 3-acid dissolution procedure is the best preparation method and the precision of different steps are in acceptable range. In the next stage, the correlation between elements and their Biological Absorption Coefficients (BAC) were investigated. The recent study demonstrates that due to variety of species, dispersion and sparsity of the plants and the effect of different biological factors, the use of biogeochemical method as a tool in copper exploration in the area is challengeable. However, secondary lithogeochemical environment such as soil can be introduced as most suitable sampling environment because it can demonstrate the highest copper concentration in contrast between mineralized and barren zones.