Premium
Occurrence Forms and Distribution of Cobalt in Cihai Fe (‐Co) Deposit, Xinjiang
Author(s) -
MENG Qingpeng,
CHAI Fengmei,
XIA Fang,
YUE Yunhui
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
acta geologica sinica ‐ english edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1755-6724
pISSN - 1000-9515
DOI - 10.1111/1755-6724.12371_15
Subject(s) - chai , geology , geochemistry , central asia , geography , physical geography , theology , philosophy
Cobalt is an important strategic material and used in aerospace, electrical appliance, machine manufacturing, chemistry and ceramic industries. It occurs in higher concentrations as companion metals in seven major deposit types (Mudd et al., 2013). A known example of magnetite deposit comprising cobalt mineralization hosted in diabase and skarn is Cornwall and Morgantown in Pennsylvania, USA. Although several studies have been conducted on the Cornwall-type deposit, there has been no consensus on a common genetic model (Hans et al., 1979). The Cihai cobalt-rich magnetite deposit, located at the Beishan region of the eastern Tianshan, is hosted in diabase and skarn associated with the Permian maficultramafic magmatism. Compared with several economic and sub-economic iron deposits in the eastern Tianshan (such as Tianhu, Yamansu and Weiya, etc.), it differs significantly in its hosted rocks and accompanying a certain amount of Co in the ore. It is probably the firstreported magnetite deposits hosted in diabase in China, and is similar in some respects to the Cornwall-type deposit. Consequently, Cihai deposit provides an opportunity to investigate the origin of Cornwall-type Fe(Co) deposit. Cobalt is detected and achieves industrial grade with tenor about 1.9% to 2.53%. However, difficulties and technology to comprehensively utilize cobalt in Cihai deposit is unclear. Cobalt is a sulphophile and siderophile element and widely occurs in a variety of forms in many deposits. Co recovery is intrinsically linked with deposit mineralogy (Mudd et al., 2013). In this paper, research on the occurrence and distribution of cobalt in Cihai deposit was performed to provide clues on the deposit metallogenesis and cobalt recovery technologies. 2 Geology of the Cihai Fe (-Co) Deposit