A northerly-trending group of quartz diorite stocks that cut Cretaceous, Eocene, 01igocene(?) and Pleistocene( ?) sedimentary rocks near Saindak, West Pakistan, contain oxidized disseminated copper minerals which may occur in commercial concentrations at depth. The stocks are enclosed by an aureole of albite-epidote hornfels about 4 miles wide that locally is cut by veins containing sparse lead and copper minerals. Within the contact aureole the few thin beds of limestone and lenticular limestone reefs have been metasomatically replaced by iron sulfide or iron oxide. The sulfide is largely oxidized near the surface. The areas of metamorphosed rocks to which the veins are mostly restricted can be recognized on panchromatic aerial photographs and from a considerable distance on the ground by their rugged topography, dark color, and by the local abundance of dikes, thus greatly reducing the area requiring field examination during a prospecting program. The red and yellow soils mantling the sulfide-rich rocks are easily recognized from short distances on the ground, but cannot be differentiated from the unmetamorphosed rocks on conventional aerial photographs. Color photography or limited-spectral photo techniques probably can be used to reveal these distinctive soils and thus define the areas of sulfide mineralization.
