Mineralogy, geochemistry and genesis of KhosrowAbad Iron deposit, NE Kermanshah

   Abstract:
      KhosrowAbad iron deposit is located 130 km NE of Kermanshah in Sanandaj-Sirjan tectonometamorphic zone. The units outcropped in the area are (iron-rich) andesitic volcanics at the lower part of the sequence and limestone which overlies the former, the both have been metamorphosed up to greenschist facies. The lithologies-iron rich andesite and limestone- have been intruded by a granitic body, led to a contact metamorphism and subsequent alteration, using meteoric fluids, extracting iron from the basaltic andesite and deposited it in the limestone adjacent to basaltic andesite and at the contact of granite. Iron occurrence which is confined to the contact of granite, existence of skarn mineralogy, chemical composition of granite and basaltic andesite, frequencies and ratios of certain elements and major oxides such as Zr/TiO2, K2O/MgO,Y/Nb, . . . and the way rare earth elements change, all support the occurrence of an iron skarn deposit, the hydrothermal fluids were of meteoric-magmatic origin, the heat being provided by the granitic intrusive but the ore (iron) by basaltic andesites.