Interpretation and comparison of magnetic data with drill holes data on Khak Sorkh iron skarn, west Yazd, Central Iran

Khak- Sorkh iron deposit lies about 42 km west of the Yazd city. The area is located in the central part of the Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic belt and is covered by upper Triassic-lower Jurassic sedimentary units and Oligo-Miocene intrusions. Intrusion of Oligo-Miocene granitoids into Cretaceous limestones resulted in iron skarn mineralization. Magnetite is the main iron ore mineral; minor copper mineralization also occurs locally as malachite staining at surface. Two main structural trends can be distinguished: NW-SE which follows the main trend of the Urumieh-Dokhtar belt, and NE-SW trend that transects the former one and dissects magnetite bodies in some places.
In this study Euler deconvolution and analytical signal methods have been used for interpretation of geophysical data. Depth of magnetic anomalies determined by Euler deconvolution clarified that magnetic bodies are located at shallow depths in the NW of the area. The trends of the detected anomalies correlate very well with the general trend of the Urumieh-Dokhtar belt. This can be used as an exploration tool for magnetic anomalies in the area and likely in other parts of the Central Urumieh-Dokhtar belt. Based on magnetic anomalies 15 diamond bore holes were drilled at the NW part of the region which cut the ore bodies at predicted levels with average ore assay of 39 percent total iron.