Mineralogy and origin of iron rich garnetites in Choogan area- North of Meimeh

In the studied area, the Cretaceous limestone rocks with abundant cracks are located on the Jurassic shales. Skarn producer fluids have influx into these cracks from a long distance and created distal skarns. The presence of a recrystallized and skarnified limestone rock layer within the shale, distinct the studied skarn from the most well-known skarns in Iran and puts it in the category of reaction skarns. There are some lenses of mineral deposites within skarns which is consisting mostly of magnetite and hematite. Iron-rich solutions which are drived from intrusive rocks, have left iron as magnetite in carbonate. In addition to the formation of magnetite by hydrothermal solutions, it can also be created in retrograde step by andradite alteration. These skarn is consisting mostly of pyroxene, garnet, tremolite-actinolite, chlorite and epidote. Skarnification process has occurred in two successive stages: progressive and regressive. In progressive stage, carbonate - silicate anhydrous minerals like garnet and pyroxene have occured. At later stages, because of the atmospheric water influence, garnets are altered to epidote, magnetite, calcite and quartz and pyroxenes are altered to tremolite, actinolite, calcite, quartz and opaque minerals. There are two set of garnet in studied skarn, the first one is massive (in progressive stage) and the other one is as veinlet (in regressive stage with epidote and has been created in quartz- calcit veins along with sulfide mineralization). Garnet compositions in iron deposits of studied area lie in grossular - andradite series. The compositions of studied garnet are the same as garnet compositions in Cu-Fe skarns in worldwide.