Studies of Mineralogy and Rare Earth Elements Geochemistry of Ba-Fe-Mn Ores in Ghareh-Bolagh, East of Mahabad, West-Azarbaidjan Province

Ghareh-bolagh area is located in 20 Km of east of Mahabad, south of West-Azarbaidjan province. Carbonate rocks of Bayandour formation and dolomites of Soltanieh formation in this area are the host of mineralizations for Barium, iron and manganese. Based upon mineralogical investigations, barite, magnetite, hematite, goethite, limonite, pyrolusite were major mineral assemblages of these mineralizations which that is accompanied by chalcopyrite, malachite, azurite, and calcite in low amounts. The most important geochemical characteristic these mineralizations are relative weak differentiation of LREE from HREE in barite and iron-manganese ores, Eu negative anomalies in iron-manganese ores (0.26-0.76) and Eu positive anomalies in barite (7.7-10.51). Incorporation of the obtained results from investigations of field, petrographic and geochemical (analytic data and correlation coefficients between elements) indicate that factors such as changes in physicochemical conditions of environment (pH, Eh, temperature), activity of complexing ligands, and presence of minor mineral phases (clay minerals, zircon, zenotime, and monazite) played important role in distribution of rare earth elements during mineralization and development of these ores.