The prospective and hypothetical areas of zinc and/or lead ores in different types of deposits beyond the Upper Silesia Zn-Pb Ore District in Poland

The best chance to document new Zn-Pb ore deposit resources in Poland appear in the area of about 2,000 km2 located to the north of the documented Zn-Pb deposits of the Zawiercie region in the Upper Silesia Ore District. Four prospective regions were isolated for the occurrence of Zn-Pb sulfide deposits of the Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) hosted by carbonaceous sediments of Middle Triassic (Muschelkalk) and Devonian. Of these, the most promising seem to be areas NW of Myszków and SE of Koziegłowy. However, due to poor drilling recognition the Zn-Pb ore resources are difficult to quantify. It would be appropriate to carry out further geophysical work (e.g. IP method) and, in the case of positive results, the anomalous areas should be the subject of drilling prospecting. The Zcchstcin copper formation on the Fore-Sudetic Monocline around the Lubin-Sieroszowice deposits, the Żary Periclinc, the North-Sudctic Basin (around the deposits Konrad and Lena-Nowy Kościół), and localities north of Zgorzelec display a few areas of rich Pb-Zn mineralization. However, due to the great depth of Pb-Zn ores deposition, they may only be considered as accompanying raw materials exploited on occasion during Cu-Ag ore extraction. Despite the considerable resources of zinc, so far this metal has not been recovered during tailings and metallurgical processing by KGHM Poland Copper S.A. The numerous minor occurrences of Zn-Pb and Pb sulfides in the Sudetes, Holy Cross Mountains, and contact zone of the Małopolska and Upper Silesian blocks do not have economic importance, though they constitute important grounds for further exploration which may lead to the discoveiy of Zn and/or Pb sulfides deposits, variable either for genetic type (stratoidal, hydrothermal veins and/or breccia, contact-metasomatic and SEDEX) or raw mineral resources.