Makeng Fe deposit, Zhangping Co., Longyan, Fujian, Chinai

Regional Level Types
Makeng Fe deposit	Deposit
Zhangping Co.	County
Longyan	Prefecture-level City
Fujian	Province
China	Country

The Makeng mining area is dominated by the Upper Paleozoic strata, including the Lower Carboniferous Lindi Formation, Upper Carboniferous Jingshe Formation-Middle Permian Qixia Formation, Middle Permian Wenbishan Formation and Middle Permian Tongziyan Formation. The Lindi Formation is primarily composed of quartz sandstone and siltstone, while the Jingshe–Qixia Formations primarily consist of shallow marine carbonate rocks with fine clastic or siliceous rocks. The Wenbishan and Tongziyan Formations are composed of sandstone, siltstone, argillite, mudstone, and shale. These strata are generally distributed in the northeast–southwest direction, dominated by the northwest.
The intrusions in the area studied mainly consist of granites, granite porphyries, granodiorites, as well as diabases. Among them, the granitic intrusions are mainly exposed on the east and west sides of the mining area, with the Juzhou intrusion on the east and the Dayang intrusion on the west. The petrological characteristics indicate that the Dayang and Juzhou intrusions exhibit a multi-stage activity, displaying a relatively intricate lithology primarily composed of granite, granodiorite, porphyritic granite, granite porphyry and quartz porphyry.
The main iron ore body is in the northwest flank of the Makeng Anticline, with layered or quasi-layered disposition within the interlayer fracture zones in the strata from the Jingshe–Qixia Formations to the Lindi Formation. The main ore body closely follows the orientation of the strata and folds, displaying a characteristic profile of central thickness and lateral thinness. Furthermore, the deposit contains numerous small-scale ore bodies with lenticular or quasi-layered shapes, primarily located in the Jingshe–Qixia Formations at the main ore body roof and some scattered along the contact interface between Wenbishan and Qixia Formations. Additionally, a limited number of small ore bodies are also discovered in close proximity to diabase veins situated on the uppermost part of the main ore body, where magnetite frequently occurs within diabase as either banded or disseminated structures. Apart from iron ore bodies, significant molybdenum mineralization is observed in this deposit. It is noteworthy that associated molybdenum ore bodies are predominantly distributed in middle and lower sections of the main ore body while independent molybdenum ore bodies are primarily found in skarn and altered diabase rocks at the uppermost part of the main ore body with minor occurrence observed in Lindi Formation sandstone.
Alteration in the deposit is highly complex, and is prominently characterized by skarn formation, silicification, potassic alteration, and sericitization. The mineralization process of the Makeng deposit can be broadly divided into three stages: (1) The calcic skarn formation stage, mainly characterized by garnet, pyroxene and other anhydrous skarn minerals, with magnetite forming within the garnet and diopside crystals during the latter part of this stage. (2) The retrograde metasomatic stage, characterized by the transformation of the skarn minerals from the previous stage and the formation of hydrous skarn minerals (e.g., tremolite, actinolite, epidote); the formation of magnetite ceased until the early part of this stage. (3) The quartz–sulfide stage, characterized by the massive deposition of quartz, calcite, fluorite, and various metal sulfides. These minerals are often veined through the skarn minerals and magnetite formed in earlier stages.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References