Sedimentary facies, paleocurrent, provenances and prospecting significance of Kuzigong-su Formation in the northern ore belt of the Sareke copper deposit in Wuqia, Xinjiang: Evidence from gravel statistic analy-sis

The Late Jurassic Kuzigongsu Formation in the Sareke Basin is the ore-bearing horizon of the Sareke copper deposit, and its sedimentary facies, provenance and palaeocurrent direction are of important significance for the exploration of the concealed cop-per deposits. The authors selected the best surface mineralized conglomerate of the Late Jurassic Kuzigongsu Formation located in the northern ore belt of Sareke basin to conduct statistical analysis of gravel. Some results were obtained:the skewness of the gravel shows that it is of alluvial fan facies; attitude statistics of the imbricated gravel and sandstone oblique bedding show that the paleocurrent was in NNE direction; components of gravel are quartz, quartz sandstone, sandstone, quartzite etc.; the distribution of the particle sizes is in shapes of wide peak and sharp peak; the source area was the eroded area of the metamorphic rocks of Calymmian Aksu Group; the supply of the provenance came from the main river and the branching river. The study of alluvial fans, ancient flows and the prove-nance has determined the range of the orebody, the best orientation of the exploration line and the potential prospecting targets, thus providing guidance for further exploration.