Magmatic Concentrations

Types of Magmatic Ore Deposits

Ores are rocks with unusually high degrees of element concentration.

Common igneous rocks have a limited range of chemical compositions.

Copper content in average ultramafic rocks is about 50ppm;

in mafic rocks 100ppm and

about 25 ppm in felsic granites and rhyolites.

Specific magmatic processes in specific geological environments concentrate

elements so as to form ore.

Processes in Magmatic systems:

1) Concentration by low degrees of partial melting

2) Accumulation and concentration of ore minerals in magma chambers during

progressive crystallization of magmas

3) Separation of two immiscible melts in a magma

4) Extreme fractionation during progressive crystallization of a magma

5) Incorporation of a mineral at a specific depth in the Earth.

Chemical partitioning of elements between phases are the principal cause of ore
formation.
Concentration of ore

1) Elements due to very low degrees of partial melting

Concentration of incompatible elements is higher in the melt than in the source rock.

The smaller the percentage of partial melting, the more enriched the melt is in
incompatible elements.

The strong concentration of incompatible elements into small percentage partial

melts is central to the formation of ores of a number of trace elements in rare and
unusual magmatic rocks e.g., in carbonatites, in strongly alkaline igneous rocks.

Carbonatites are rare igneous rocks composed of >50% carbonate minerals like
calcite, dolomite and siderite.

Many of them host one or more separate ore bodies containing different
combinations of incompatible trace elements and in some cases also of some major
elements.

They may host ores of

LREEs, Nb-Ta, Ti, Th, Co, Zr, Hf, Fe, Apatite, Vermiculite

Carbonatites and genetically related rocks are the primary global source of the
LREEs.

At pressures greater than about 2.5 GPa, i.e., depths greater than about 90 km,
dolomite can be a stable mineral in mantle peridotite.

Carbonatite melts are produced in experiments by low percentages of partial melting

of carbonate-bearing peridotite at between about 2.5 GPa and 6 GPa.
The carbonate minerals are fully melted after a few per cent partial melting, and the
maximum percentage of melting that will produce a carbonatite melt from dolomite-
bearing mantle peridotite is estimated to be less than about 3%.

With slightly higher temperatures and degrees of melting, the same source rock will
produce carbonate bearing alkaline magmas.

Carbonatite melts may in most cases freeze on rising through the upper mantle and
may only reach the surface in unusual circumstances of rapid rise from the depths of
melting.

The geochemical behaviour and mineralogical setting of REEs in mantle

environments is not fully known; however, their likely behaviour on melting can be
interpreted.

All REEs have ionic radii too large for easy substitution in crystal lattice sites in major
mantle minerals, and unless there is a minor mineral in which they are compatible
they will be incompatible and will be concentrated in a melt.

2) Minerals in magma chambers during progressive crystallization of

magmas

Minerals like chromite concentrate directly from silicate magmas during fractional
crystallization in a magma chamber.

Chromium is a lithophile element and is compatible in both spinel and clinopyroxene

relative to ultramafic and mafic melts.

So it is largely retained in the mantle during partial melting.

Within the crust, ultramafic layers of large mafic-ultramafic igneous bodies have the
highest concentrations of Cr.

Chromite, a spinel is the only ore mineral of Cr.

Depending upon its chemical composition chromite has different uses.

It is used in the chemical industry as a feeder for Cr and in the steel industry for
ferrochrome and manufacture of refractories.

Chromite deposits can be of two types:

Layered / Stratiform Chromite – in large layered ultramafic-mafic intrusions

Podiform Chromite – in ophiolites or Alpine peridotites

Startiform Chromite Deposits

Examples : Great Dyke of Zimbabwe

Bushveld Complex

Stillwater Complex

The host intrusions are upto a few kilometres thick and are characteristically layered
and extend over a great area.

The cumulate sequences of the intrusions are complex with repeated multiple cycles
units.

The overall sequence of minerals conform to the Bowen’s reaction series: base
upwards-

Top Clinopyroxene

Plagioclase

Orthopyroxene
 Chromite

Bottom Olivine

Chromite ores occur within the cumulate sequences as thin, stratiform, chromite-rich
rock or chromitite layers (seams) between tens of centimetres to about 1m thick,
parallel to the igneous layering.

The layers are generally continuous over kilometres of strike length, but are locally
branched, or are offset by structures resembling faults.

Chromite layers coincide with

abrupt changes in mineralogy

reversals of sequence of layers expected from progressive crystallization.

In case of layers in single rock type, there is reversal in mineral composition, like
nickel content and forsterite content of olivine may be higher in layer immediately
above a layer than below.

These chemical and mineralogical reversals are evidence of disturbance to

crystallization of the cumulate pile just below or at the time of chromite accumulation.

A number of different chemical and physical processes explain for the formation of
chromitite layers in large, layered intrusions.

(i) Periodic oxidation of the magma, as a result of addition of water into the
magma. This would give rise to short periods of chromite crystallisation.
(ii) Differential settling of chromite because of greater density to separate it from
other minerals in the magma chamber.

However, many chromitite layers are hosted in orthopyroxenite, which includes minor
chromite

but

there is no gradual increase or decrease in either

the modal abundance of chromite towards the layers,

or

a decrease in the grain size of chromite upwards through the layers.

Complex physical and chemical processes explain for chromitite layers that are
inferred to take place with repeated magma input into partially crystallised large
magma chambers,

where

magmas of different compositions mix and interact chemically.

The addition of silica to a primitive magma, as a result of assimilation of felsic

country rock into the melt, would also move the liquid composition into the chromite
field.

Multiple layers of stratiform chromitite are interpreted in terms of multiple episodes of

input of new similar composition magma.

Indian equivalent: The Sittampundi complex in Salem near Chennai (Tamil Nadu)
Podiform Chromites

Ophiolites are fragments of upper crust and upper mantle that have been technically
emplaced onto continental crust.

Chromite ore bodies in ophiolite are typically pipe like to podiform shaped bodies of
chromitite or chromite rich dunite with >25% chromite intergrown with olivine or with
serpentine.

They are mostly small from a few kilogrammes to a few million tonnes.

Most economic ores are in harzburgite-type ophiolites, in which harzburgite (olivine-

orthopyroxene rock) dominates the mantle section.

They are rare and poorly developed in lherzolite-type ophiolites (with olivine-
orthopyroxene-clinopyroxene ± plagioclase assemblages).

The majority of ore bodies occur within the ultramafic tectonites between 500 m and
1000 m below the top of the mantle.

Chromitite form below a ridge axis in upwelling mantle and

become smeared by solid state flow of mantle away from
the axis.
The harzburgite of the upper mantle in typical ophiolites is a residue from melting
and extraction of MORB melt at depths of a few tens of kilometres.

After melt extraction, this residue is carried upwards by solid-state mantle flow.

Continually produced MORB melts sourced from deeper in the mantle percolate
along channel ways through this residuum while it is still hot.

This percolating melt forms at depth in equilibrium with orthopyroxene and olivine,
but it is no longer in equilibrium with orthopyroxene in the shallow mantle.

The upward-percolating deeply sourced primitive MORB melt reacts with adjacent
harzburgite, dissolving orthopyroxene and replacing it with olivine to produce the
bodies of replacive dunite.

Due to this there is increase in the silica content of the melt.

Relicts of melt included in chromite grains indicate that they crystallise from mafic
rather than ultramafic melt even though no mafic rocks are otherwise preserved in
chromitite or enveloping dunite in mantle tectonites.

The concentration of chromitite pods just below the petrological Moho may be a
result of ponding of rising magma at this level.

Differences in petrological evolution of the mantle at different ocean spreading

centres may explain why some ophiolites host podiform chromitites and others do
not.
The degree of melting of mantle peridotite controls whether the residue is
harzburgite (high degree of melting) or lherzolite (low degree of melting).

This difference is controlled by the rate of spreading at the ridge or arc.

Harzburgites tend to form at fast spreading ridges at which temperatures are hotter
at any depth, more basalt melt is formed and extracted and the residue becomes
more strongly depleted of less compatible elements than lherzolite.

Both the melt that is percolating upwards

and

the composition of the residue from earlier melting

will be different

and these differences will affect the likelihood of the melt becoming in the chromite
field through resorption of wall-rock orthopyroxene into the melt.

Layered Chromite Podiform Chromite

Belong to Intruded into stable cratons/ stable Mobile belts/orogenic zones

oceanic crust

with many primary igneous and

sedimentary features preserved Ophiolites formed in marginal basins

Form Sheet like Irregular and unpredictable

Ore bodies are
Great lateral extent Pod like, short lenses

Uniform and consistent

Composition Ultrabasic differentiates of gabbroid Peridotite masses or peridotite gabbro.

magma-
Range from dunite- gabbro
dunites, peridotites & pyroxenites.

Average host close to peridotite

Average host close to gabbro
Associated Upper parts bear PGE& None
Deposit
Top – Vanadiferous magnetite
Originally Upper crust In the mantle & later incorporated into
crystallized/ highly unstable tectonic environment
emplaced
in the crust by movement up thrust /
reverse fault
Both are orthomagmatic

3) Separation of two melts in magma

Sulphide minerals are a minor component of most rocks including those of the
mantle.

On partial melting sulphide minerals dissolve into the silicate melt upto the limits of
sulphide solubility i.e., a few hundred ppm.

As the silicate magma migrates and evolves, the limits of saturation change and
some of the dissolved sulphide may become immiscible and separate out as
droplets.

The droplets may form separate sulphide melt phase.

Chalcophile and siderophile elements like Cr, Ni, Pt and related elements are more
compatible in solution in sulphide melt than silicate melt.

Similarly iron oxide rich immiscible melt from aluminous felsic and anorthositic
silicate magmas form some magnetite ilmenite ores.

The economically important magmatic sulfide ores

(1) base-metal, Ni-Cu magmatic sulfide deposits in gabbroic intrusions

(2) base-metal, Ni-dominated sulfide deposits in ultramafic lava flows

(komatiites)

(3) precious metal, PGE magmatic sulfide deposits in large layered ultramafic
to mafic intrusions.

Ni-Cu and Ni ores are enriched in PGEs, and PGE ores are enriched in Ni and Cu.
Geochemical principles of ore formation through sulfide melt immiscibility

(a) Incorporation of sulfide and chalcophile elements into a silicate melt

The sulfide is incorporated through melting of sulfide minerals that are

minor disseminated minerals in mantle peridotite.

The partition coefficients of Ni, Cu and PGEs between

Case I
silicate melt and sulfide melt and

Case II

silicate minerals and melt are different.

So these elements reach high concentrations in the melt at different degrees

of progressive melting of mantle peridotite.

PGEs and Cu are expected to have highest concentrations in melts during

batch melting into which

concentrations in the melt drop with further melting because of dilution.

Ni is partitioned into olivine. So the concentration of Ni in the melt increases

progressively with increasing percentages of partial melting.

(b) Sulfur saturation - formation of immiscible sulfide melt

Sulfide solubility in a silicate melt varies with pressure and temperature, and
also with the chemical parameters like silica and FeO content of the melt.

A sulfide-bearing magma become undersaturated or over saturated with

respect to a sulfide phase during

magma migration,

cooling,

crystallisation and

fractionation.
 If a mafic magma becomes sulfide-saturated, drops of immiscible sulfide liquid
/melt form rather than sulfide minerals.

Partition coefficients of Ni and Cu between sulfide melt and mafic silicate melt
are measured to be about 200 and 1500, respectively and that of PGE is
higher.

The chalcophile and siderophile elements (Ni, Cu, Co, PGEs, Au) can be
strongly partitioned into a sulfide melt phase.

These droplets will be dense compared to a mafic silicate melt and will tend to
settle and accumulate.

The elements need to diffuse to the droplets faster than the droplets settle or
accumulate.

(c) Crystallisation of sulfide melt and partitioning of ore elements

The sulfide minerals preserved in the ores are the products of recrystallization
and equilibration on cooling from magmatic temperatures down to about
250oC

and not those that crystallise from a melt.

The ease of sulfide mineral recrystallisation below magmatic temperatures

ensures complete recrystallisation of the high-temperature minerals, which
are never preserved in nature.

[Chalcopyrite is for instance a product of recrystallisation of the mineral iss

(intermediate solid solution) at temperatures of around 300oC.

The high-temperamre Fe-Ni sulfide mineral is the mineral mss (monosulfide

solid solution), which at high temperatures is a continuous solid solution
between Fe- and Ni-end members.

The mineral mss recrystallises to pentlandite and pyrrhotite at low

temperatures.

Pyrrhotite is the dominant iron sulfide mineral rather than pyrite because there
is always sufficient Fe in the sulfide melt to form this Fe-rich mineral.
PGEs are rare elements even where concentrated in ores, and occur most
commonly as assemblages of trace PGE sulfides, alloys, arsenides and
related minerals.]

A) Massive to disseminated Ni-Cu sulfide ores in mafic intrusions

Example: Sudbury Igneous Complex of Ontario, Canada

Noril'sk-Talnakh, Russian Federation

The sulfide ore bodies are commonly but not universally at or near the base of
intrusions.

They form complex lenticular shapes in the intrusion, and are sited in different
positions and in different host-rocks within the different intrusions.

Nickel sulfide ores in komatiites

Komatiites are ultramafic lavas and associated shallow intrusive units.

They have typically 30 to 40% MgO and are

petrologically

peridotites (dunites, harzburgites and orthopyroxenites)

and

metamorphosed equivalents (serpentinites, talc-schists, tremolite-

chlorite schists).

The sulfide ores are dominated by pyrrhotite and pentlandite with minor
chalcopyrite, and in some cases additional Ni sulfide minerals (violarite and
millerite) and pyrite.

The sulfide mineral assemblages in some ores are products of

recrystallisation under metamorphic conditions.
 Typical textures of magmatic sulfide deposits and their
vertical distribution

Ore is located at the base of many intrusions

and komatiite flows.

The vertical sequence of ore types with

net-textured and disseminated ores above massive ores

is controlled by

settling of dense sulfide liquid through actively crystallising silicate magma

and by

buoyancy effects

Where magma rises rapidly through the upper mantle and crust, it follows an
adiabatic cooling path, with only minor cooling on pressure drop.

The solubility of sulfide in a silicate melt increases with increasing temperatures but
decreases with increasing pressure.

A silicate magma that was saturated with respect to sulfide in the mantle

would become

undersaturated on rising to near the Earth's surface

and
the sulfide should remain in solution until a large percentage of the magma has
crystallised.

A mantle-derived magma can only reach sulfide saturation early in its crystallisation
history at or near the Earth's surface if there is a change in magma chemistry.

Sulfide saturation may be reached if there is a reduction in sulfur solubility,

because of

 addition of silica into the magma(silica-rich rocks)

 sulfide itself may be added to the magma (sulfide-bearing rocks).

In either case, these changes are likely to be a result of assimilation of crustal rocks
into the magma.

Assimilation could be either from

conduit wall-rocks as the magma intrudes through the crust,

or from

substrate foot-wall rocks in the case of komatiite lavas.

B) PGE sulfide deposits

Economic PGE ores need to contain

5-10 ppm combined PGEs,

which is equivalent to

concentration by enrichment factors of between a thousand and ten-thousand

times crustal abundances.

The most important primary deposits of PGEs are laterally extensive thin layers ( =
reefs),from
< 1 m to about 20 m thick in layered ultramafic to mafic large-volume and extensive
intrusions in the upper crust.

The reefs are broadly parallel to the cumulate layering, and are continuous along
much of the extent of the exposed intrusions.

There may be multiple reefs at different levels in one layered intrusion.

The magmas that filled the intrusions that host PGE-enriched layers were high
magnesium basalts, tholeiites, or mildly alkalic basalts.

The host intrusions of the economic reefs are layered intrusions formed from high-
magnesium, low-titanium siliceous mafic magmas ( boninite-norite (BN) suite
magmas).

Most PGE reefs contain 0.5-5% disseminated base-metal sulfide minerals

(dominantly pyrrhotite, pentlandite and chalcopyrite).

There are uncertainties in the ore genetic models.

Input of new magma and mixing between this magma and magma resident in the
chamber was critical for precipitation of the PGE.

All known economic accumulations of magmatic Ni-Cu sulfide ores, except for those
of the Sudbury Igneous Complex,

occur where

large volumes of mafic or ultramafic magmas derived through relatively high

percentages of melting of mantle peridotite

have intruded

into and through continental crust.

This may be because high volumes of high-temperature melt are more likely to
assimilate felsic rocks from the crust and hence become sulfide-saturated.

4) Extreme fractionation during progressive crystallisation of magma

The word pegmatiteis normally used to describe a coarse-grained granitic rock.

Granite pegmatites occur as dykes, lenses and smaller segregations, often as

swarms within and around some granitic plutons.

Incompatible elements enriched in the last melt may be major components of rare
minerals and crystallize rare minerals in some pegmatites.

For example Li, Be, Nb, Ta, Sn, Th and U are incompatible in common rock forming
minerals and form ores in pegmatites.

All these elements are not enriched in a single pegmatite and pegmatite swarm.

There are common patterns of co-enrichment which are indicated by the

abbreviations LCT (= Li, Cs, Ta) and NYF (= Nb, Y, F).'

Pegmatites with enrichments of mixtures of the elements of these types also occur.

Pegmatites are of greatest economic interest as ores of Ta, Sn, Cs, U and Rb.

Rare-metal enrichment in pegmatites is mainly through melt fractionation

Low concentrations of Ca, Fe and other elements partition into the major minerals of
granites.

A pegmatite melt is generally not saturated with respect to rare-metal minerals

when it

first leaves the source pluton,

but

progressive crystallisation of the pegmatite is itself a process of fractionation

which

concentrates many trace elements up to levels at which rare-element minerals are

saturated.

LCT pegmatites, are associated with S-type ormixed S-I-type granites, which are
peraluminous granites with Al concentrations in excess of those required to produce
feldspars.

5) Incorporation of a mineral that occurs at a specific depth in the Earth

Diamond deposits in kimberlite and lamproites that are generated below the
graphite-diamond transition depth in the mantle are carried to the surface.

Kimberlitic magmas form as a result of low degrees of partial melting of C02-H20-

bearing peridotite.

For formation of these magmas, low degrees of partial melting is required and
temperatures in the mantle must be only a little above the solidus.

Partial melts formed at higher temperatures and greater percentages of partial

melting would be basaltic.
Low-percentage partial melts would have high C02 and H20 concentrations (> 5 wt
% H20 and 5 wt % C02), as in kimberlite.

High volatile contents mean that the melts have a low viscosity and a low overall
density if exsolved volatiles are retained in the melt as bubbles.

Both of these promote rapid magma rise.

The buoyancy force for ascent may be self-reinforcing as volatiles become less
soluble with decreasing pressure, exsolve and hence cause a decrease of bulk
magma density.

Buoyancy is strong when large amounts of C02 are exsolved, as this has a high
compressibility.

These effects may promote rapid intrusion through the upper mantle and prevent
diamond resorption during transport.

The high compressibility of C02 may promote unsteady magma ascent and hence
pressure fluctuations in the magma, and may promote

wall rock brecciation and incorporation of abundant xenoliths and xenocrysts

through bubble nucleation.

The xenoliths are typically derived from restricted depth intervals along the conduit.

About 10% of kimberlites and lamproites known worldwide are diamond-bearing

and

about 10% of these have sufficient concentrations of diamonds to have been

developed as mines.

A critical factor in the generation of a diamond deposit in ultramafic rocks is that

diamonds are picked up during transport in xenoliths and xenocrysts.
Most of the xenoliths and xenocrysts are picked up in the more brittle mantle
lithosphere because this is where the wall-rock has been fragmented.

Mode of Formation

Magmatic Deposits result from simple crystallization or from concentration by

differentiation of igneous masses.

There are several modes of formation of magmatic deposits and they originate
during different periods of magma generation. The formation of deposits can be
identified by two different processes:

a. Early Magmatic deposit (ore minerals crystallized earlier than the rock
silicates)
b. Late Magmatic Deposits (ore minerals crystallized after rock silicates

Early Magmatic Deposits

Are resulted from straight magmatic processes. These deposits have been
formed by

Dissemination: crystallization without concentration

Early formed valuable and abundant crystals disseminated throughout a deep

seated magma in situ.

The whole rock mass constitute the deposit & the individual crystals may or
may not be phenocrysts.
 Examples:

Diamond pipes of South Africa- diamonds are phenocrysts in kimberlite pipes.

The whole kimberlite is the mineral deposit.

Corundum in nepheline syenite in Ontario - corundum is disseminated.

The size of the deposits is large & they have the shape of the intrusive which
may be

Dike

Pipe

Small stock like mass

Segregation: separated by crystallization differentiation

Formed as a result of gravitative crystallization differentiation.

Early formed heavy crystals may sink to the lower part of the magma chamber
and segregate in bodies of sufficient size and richness to constitute enormous
deposits.

The deposits are generally lenticular and of relatively small size.

 Commonly pod shaped lenses, stringers and bunches are rarely in the form of
layers.

Examples:

The Stillwater Complex of Montana - Platinum - Palladium,

Cu-Ni &

gold and silver.

Chromite,

Ilmenite & titaniferous magnetite

The Bushveld Igneous Complex of South Africa – Stratiform bands of

chromite of remarkably uniform thickness parallel to the pseudo-stratification
of the enclosing mafic igneous rocks – can be traced for several kilometres.

The Sittampundi complex in Salem near Madras (Tamil Nadu) – Layered

anorthosite segregated deposits.

Chromite crystallized in regular chromitite layers within the anorthosites

towards the bottom of the sheet.

Saltora in Bankura District of West Bengal – Partly layered anorthosite

Late Magmatic Deposits

They consist of igneous ore minerals that have crystallized from a residual
magma towards the close of magmatic period.

The ore minerals crystallize later than the rock silicates and cut across them,
embay them and yield reaction rims of alteration products around the margins
of enclosed silicate minerals – called deuteric alteration.

The late magmatic deposits have resulted from:

a. Variations of crystallization differentiation.
b. Gravitative accumulation of heavy residual liquids.
c. Liquid separation of sulfide droplets.

Residual Liquid Segregation

In certain mafic magmas, the residual liquid becomes enriched in iron,

titanium and volatiles.
This liquid settles to the bottom of the magma chamber, or crystallizes in the
interstices of early formed crystals.

Examples: Titaniferous magnetite layers of the Bushveld Igneous Complex, S.

Africa.

When the concentration of a particular mineral within a parent magma

reaches saturation, at a temperature above the melting point of the mineral, a
drop of liquid precipitates instead of a mineral grain and precipitation occurs.

The composition of this immiscible drop is not exactly that of the pure mineral,
because the liquid tends to scavenge and concentrate many elements from
the parent magma, and this process can lead to rich ore deposits.

Iron sulfide is the principal constituent of most immiscible magmas, and the
metals scavenged by iron sulfide liquid are copper, nickel, and the platinum
group.

Immiscible sulfide drops can become segregated and form immiscible magma
layers in a magma chamber.

Then, when layers of sulfide magma cool and crystallize, the result is a
deposit of ore minerals of copper, nickel, and platinum-group metals in a
gangue of an iron sulfide mineral.

Examples

The Merensky Reef of the Bushveld Complex, producer of a major fraction of

the world’s platinum-group metals;

The Stillwater Complex, Montana, host to platinum-group deposits similar to

the Merensky Reef; and

The Norilsk deposits of Russia, containing large reserves of platinum-group

metals.

Under suitable conditions, immiscible sulfide liquids can also become

segregated from flowing lavas.

The Kambalda nickel deposit in Western Australia. Pentlandite (Nickel ore),

together with copper and PGE (valuable by-product minerals), crystallized in
an iron-sulfide-rich gangue from a sulfide liquid that had become segregated
from a magnesium-rich lava called a komatiite (named for the Komati River in
South Africa).

The Sudbury Igneous Complexin Ontario, Canada. (Ni Cu deposits) Many

hypotheses have been suggested for their origin. Some consider it to be

[A combination of intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks, but the most

widely held opinion
 Sudbury structure is an astrobleme, the site of a large meteorite
impact. The complex’s sulfide ore bodies are thought to be derived
from immiscible magmas formed in the Earth’s mantle as a result of the
impact (and possibly mixed with meteorite material), while the
uppermost layers are thought to be rock debris remaining from the
impact. ]

Kiruna and Gällivare Iron ores, SwedenThese magnetite-apatite bodies

encased in volcanic rocks have been variously interpreted as

having formed as immiscible oxide magmas, as iron-rich sediments

that were subsequently metamorphosed, and as

Deposits arising from volcanic exhalations.

Controversy lies over

Magnetite deposits associated with volcanic rocks of dioritic affinity.

Whether magnetite bodies associated with lavas formed as a result of

a dioritic magma precipitating an immiscible oxide magma, as a
magnetite lava formed through the melting of a previously formed
sedimentary iron deposit,

or

as the source of a hydrothermal solution that deposited the magnetite. Many

experts draw the latter conclusion. Considerable controversy also surrounds
the origin of the famous.

(Imp)Layered Chromite of Jojohatu, Singhbhum – Heavy residual liquid rich in

chromium slowly trickled down into the lower portions of igneous mass
through interstices of a mesh of touching crystals of silicates and collected
somewhere in the middle portion of the igneous mass and formed well defined
bands.

Residual Liquid Injection

The iron-rich residual liquid accumulated in the above manner may be
subjected to movement because of:
a. Gentle tilting (causing lateral movement).
b. Pressure and be squirted out to places of lesser pressure.

In both cases it may be injected into adjacent rocks and even in the earlier
consolidated parent silicate mass.

Examples:
Titanomagnetite Deposits, Adirondack Region, New York;

Allard Lake Deposits; Magnetite Deposits of Kiruna, Sweden.

Immiscible Liquid Segregation

Sulfide-rich magmas are immiscible in silicate rich magmas. This gives rise to
separation before crystallization.

The accumulated sulfide may not necessarily be pure – in fact quite often it is
an enrichment of sulfides in the lower parts of the magma like pyrrhotite-
chalcopyrite-pentlandite (nickel-copper ores) confined to rocks of the gabbro
family.

Examples:

Ni-Cu Deposits of Insizwa, S. Africa;

Nickeliferous Sulfide Deposits of Bushveld, S. Africa & Norway;

Nickel Sulfide Deposits of Sudbury, Ontario.

Immiscible Liquid Injection

Examples:

Vlackfontein Mine of S. Africa;

Nickel Deposits of Norway.

(Imp)Chromite Deposits of Naushahi Odisha –After most of the coarse

grained enstatite had crystallized and the residual liquid was nearly pure,
there was some pressure or release of pressure underground as a result of
which the ore liquid was injected along the shear planes already present in
the earlier formed dunite and peridotites.