## 2 Geological Setting  
The Anti-Atlas is a SW-NE to WSW-ENE area in the northwestern part of the West African Craton (WAC), covering an area of approximately 120,000 km\({}^{2}\), bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the High Atlas Mountains to the north, and the intracratonic Paleozoic Tindouf and Bechar basins to the south and east, respectively. The Anti-Atlas consists of Proterozoic basement rocks that emerged as inliers beneath the folded Paleozoic sedimentary cover during the Hercynian event [22; 24]. Anti-Atlas rocks show multiple cycles of deformation events of Eburnean, Pan-African, and Hercynian orogenies [22; 30; 31; 32]. The oldest Paleoproterozoic rocks outcropping in the  
Figure 1: (**a**) Anti-Atlas geological map and coordinates of the most important copper deposits: (1) Jbel Joud, (2) Ouansimi, (3) Agigal, (4) Tasrift, (5) Tazalaght, (6) Imi n’Ifri, (7) Talat n’Ouamane, (8) Tadenst, (9) Tizert, (10) Tiferki, (11) Amadouz, (12) Tazert, (13) Tirzit, (14) Tidzi, (15) Jbel N’Zourk, (16) Jbel Laassel, (17) Timarighine, (18) [PERSON], (19) [PERSON], (20) [PERSON], (21) [PERSON], (22) Inset to the top left is a sketch of the Anti-Atlas situation. (**b**) Geological cross-section A-B (modified from [PERSON] [25]). (**c** Geological cross-section C-D (modified from [PERSON] et al. [26]) (geological cross-section locations are indicated on the map). southwestern parts are composed of Eburnean low-to-medium grade metamorphic units, intersected by many granitoids at around 2 Gy. The Eburnean basement is covered with a large unconformity by Neoproterozoic Pan-African terrains that range from the Cryogenian to the Ediacaran or directly by the Lower Cambrian transgressive series. After a prolonged quiescence through the Mesoproterozoic, except for some mafic dykes that bisected the Eburnean basement [33; 34; 35], the Precambrian deposits resumed with the Pan-African cycle by a large platform (Bleida Tachdamt Group) established on the northern edge of the West African Craton (WAC). Coincidentally, oceanic lithosphere and magmatic arcs developed northward [31]. Various rocks of this Neoproterozoic setting were stacked along the Anti-Atlas Major Fault corresponding to the Pan-African suture during several Pan-African accretions from 750 to 640 Ma [36; 37; 38]. The paroxysm of the Pan-African orogen was marked by the emplacement of syntectonic quartz-diorite plutons along the Bou Azzer suture at around 650 Ma [39]. The Ediacaran siliciclastic and volcanoelastic deposits underline the waning stages of the Pan-African orogen. The carbonate-dominated Adoudou and Lie-de-vin Formations [40; 41] unconformably overlie the Precambrian rocks, forming the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition and beginning a long and continuous Paleozoic sedimentary cycle. The Paleozoic sedimentary cover of the Anti-Atlas, ranging in age from Cambrian to Carboniferous, is thicker in the southwest (about 10,000 m) and less than 6000 m in the east [25; 42]. It rests paraconformably or with angular discordance on the Ediacaran volcano-sedimentary sediments of the Upper Ediacaran Ouarzazate Formation (Figure 1). The Cambrian formations, deposited in a rifting context [43; 44], are divided into three lithological groups: the Taroudant Formation, the Tata Formation, and the internal Feijas Formation. The Taroudant Formation (Adoudounian) sedimentary sequence shows two units, the carbonated \"Oued Adoudou\" or \"Adoudou Formation\" [45] and the Taliouine Formation, formerly known as \"Lie de vin\" [46]. The Adoudou unit is divided into a lower unit called the \"Series de base\" and an upper unit called the \"Lower Limestones\" [40]. The \"Serie de Base\" consists of a trilogy, usually from a conglomerate top covered with lower limestone [47] to the end of a silty clay interval [43; 48; 49]. The series is well-represented in the western Anti-Atlas (400 m) and thins rapidly eastward, disappearing in the central Anti-Atlas. The lower limestone begins with the prominent silicified Tamjout dolomite layers, which are topped by stromatolite dolomite sequences.