Geology and mineralization of the Khanik-Qazan titanium potential, Urmia, West Azarbaijan province, NW Iran

The Khanik-Qazan titanium potential is located at 82 km northwest of Urmia at the NW extremity of the Sanandaj-Sirjan geological zone. This deposit has formed in the Qazan mafic-ultramafic intrusive complex, which is intruded into the early Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. It consists of two general rock units including 1) mafic unit as the main outcrop and 2) ultramafic unit in smaller volume. The mafic rock type is gabbro in general, medium grained and layered, accompanied by anorthosite sill and microgabbro (diabase). Layered mela and meso-gabbro are the main host rocks for titanium mineralization in the studied area. The main minerals of the host rock include clinopyroxene (mainly augite), and calcic plagioclases. Opaque minerals, rare olivine and apatite are the minor minerals and tremolite-actinolite, epidote, zoisite, chlorite, albite, sericite and calcite are the secondary minerals. Saussuritization, uralitization, sericitization and chloritization are the main alterations on the main silicate minerals. Ilmenite, titanomagnetite, magnetite, and some hematite and pyrrhotite are the main primary opaque ore minerals. Open-space filling textures including granular and exsolution are the major textures of the ore, while, spherical, martitization and mylonitization are the minor textures. Total abundance of ilmenite, magnetite, titanomagnetite based on the studied polished sections ranges between 5 to 12 vol%. Oxide and silicate phases are associated with the host rocks due to the relatively low oxygen fugacity, which don’t occurred in complete separation of the silicate melt oxide melt. Based on geochemical studies, the primary magma had an alkaline to sub-alkaline (mainly tholeiitic trend) series nature. According to the mineralogical and petrographical evidence and chemical analyses, the Khanik-Qazan ilmenite-titanomagnetite deposit is similar to the low grade apatite- ilmenite–magnetite Kauhajarvi deposit and Lumikangas deposits, in western Finland.