Geological Features and Formation Processes of the Makeng Fe Deposit, China

Recent studies have revealed that the Makeng Fe deposit is a skarn type deposit. However, the skarns in Makeng, occurring primarily between limestone and sandstone, are not typically associated with limestone and plutons. Different periods of intrusions, e.7. Hercynian mafic intrusions and Yanshanian (i.e. early Cretaceous) Dayang-Juzhou granitic intrusion, occurred in the Makeng deposit district. In this study, the formation processes of the skarns and Fe mineralization are constrained by detailed fieldwork, petrology, geochronology, and geochemistry. Skarns and Fe mineralization intersecting the Hercynian mafic intrusions are observed in consecutive specimens from the 106# tunnel. They suggest that the skarn formation and Fe mineralization occurred after the Hercynian mafic intrusions and are related to the later Yanshanian Dayang-Juzhou granitic intrusion. The geochronological characteristics of weakly skarn-altered diabases, the decreasing nature of Fe contents in altered diabase, and the major element compositions of pyroxenes and garnets also support that Hercynian mafic intrusions are strongly reformed by Yanshanian granitic magmas and the Fe migrated from mafic intrusion was responsible for formation of iron ore.