Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Zincian Dolomite in the Tangedozdan area (Fereydounshahr- West of Isfahan Province)

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article

Author

• Seyed Vahid Shahrokhi

Associate Professor, Department of Geology, Khorramabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khorramabad, Iran

10.22067/econg.2025.1132

Abstract

The Tangedozdan zinc and lead deposit is located 25 km northeast of Fereydounshahr and in the middle part of the Sanandaj-Sirjan zone. The rock units from old to new include greenish volcanics, calcareous sandstone, crystalline limestone, limestone to dolomitic limestone, and gray limestone belonging to the Jurassic-Cretaceous and alluviums of the Holocene time. The limestone to dolomitic limestone unit with normal contact sits on greenish volcanic and hosts zinc mineralization. The Zincian-dolomite in this area can be recognized by different amounts of zinc, smaller amounts of lead and, cadmium in its structure. In the studied area, a set of formed zinc and fewer lead ores, the most important in the exogenous part are smithsonite, hemimorphite, and cerussite, and in the endogenous part are sphalerite and, pyrite. Performing XRD analysis with the conventional method shows the presence of dolomite, smithsonite, and sphalerite. By changing the decomposition conditions, the structure parameters in Zincian-dolomites increased simultaneously with the amount of zinc, based on of this, there is a direct relationship between the zinc amount in the dolomite and the structure parameters. The study of the Zincian-dolomite sample by differential thermometry method shows the reduction of endothermic point and the zinc effect substitution in the dolomite structure. EPMA analysis of Zincian-dolomite samples show the substitution of Mg with Zn. Based on this, the replacement of dolomite by exogenous zincian-dolomite is a part of the mineralization process, and with the progress of zincian-dolomite formation and dolomitization, it eventually leads to the formation of non-sulfide zinc minerals such as smithsonite.
 
Introduction
Based on reproductive indices, the nonsulfide zinc and lead deposits are divided into two main groups, endogenous and exogenous, mineralogical characteristics, and geological characteristics (Hitzman et al., 2003). Non-sulfide zinc minerals, known as calamine, combine of exogenous zinc minerals with lead non-sulfide minerals, hydroxide cherts, and silicates (Boni and Mondillo, 2015; Luke et al., 2015; Newton, 2013). According to previous studies, the Tangedozdan zinc and lead deposit with carbonate host rock of the Mississippi Valley-type (Delavar et al., 2014) consists of exogenous non-sulfide zinc minerals (Amiri and Shahrokhi, 2023). The identification and study of zinc dolomites, considering their close relationship with non-sulfide minerals, in addition to the introduction of this collection, can be effective in broadening the exploration work and lead to an increase in accuracy
Tangedozdan area in the west of Isfahan province, 10km from Fereydounshahr city and, in the vicinity of Tangedozdan between longitudes 49˚56'30'' to 49˚57'30'' east and latitudes 32˚02' to 32˚03' north and, is located in the middle part of the Sanandaj-Sirjan zone. Rocks in 1/20000 geological map include volcanic (JK^v), sandstone (JK^s), crystalline limestone (C.L.S), limestone to dolomitic limestone (JK^l,dl) and limestone (K_l¹) belonging to the Jurassic-Cretaceous and the sediments of the Holocene time (Q^a and Q^sc) the JK^v unit is the oldest rock, consisting of Trachyandesite to andesite volcanic rocks. The JK^l,dl unit hosts mineral matter and consists of limestone to thick dolomitic limestone. It is located east of Tangedozdan with normal contact on the JK^v unit and hosts zinc carbonate mineralization.
 
Materials and methods
Chemical analysis has been done for 30 samples taken by ICP-MS method in the laboratory of the Iran Minerals Research and Processing Center. 10 samples were also analyzed by XRD in the Zarazma and Binaloud laboratory. Thermal analysis was done by DTA/TGA in the Iran Minerals Research and Processing Center laboratory.
To investigate the chemistry of the samples, 36 points were subjected to EPMA analysis in the Potsdam University Laboratory, Germany.
 
Result
In the Tangedozdan area, the most important zinc and lead minerals in the exogenous part are smithsonite, hemimorphite, and cerussite, and in the endogenous part sphalerite and to a lesser extent galena and pyrite.
In the study area, three types of dolomites can be distinguished based on the color visible in the field. The first type is dark-colored dolomite. The second type is yellow to brown, which can be due to the exogenous oxidation of Fe²⁺ in the dolomite structure (Zabinski, 1980; Motavali et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2019).
 
Discussion
Based on these analyses, the main minerals are dolomite, smithsonite, sphalerite, and pyrite, secondary minerals are cerusite, hematite, quartz, barite, calcite, and rare minerals are galena, and muscovite, illite. Standard dolomite was checked and identified with cart number 036-0426 and with the help of Xpert high surplus software. Based on the Rietveld method in Maud software, two samples were analyzed and were calculated by the structure a and c parameters (Monecke et al., 2001). The selected samples have different amounts of zinc. Based on this, the lattice parameters a and c in TBA-14 sample with 2.10% zinc value are respectively a=4.8092Å and c=16.0200Å for the TBA-14 sample with 3.05% zinc value a=4.8130Å and c=16.0233 Å, and for the TBA-19 sample with 3.56% zinc, a=4.8170 Å and c=16.0310 Å were determined, respectively. The results related to pure calcite and pure dolomite. The results of differential calorimetry of two dolomite samples TBA-14 and TBA-19 from the Tangedozdan area are compared. Sample No. TBA-14 with 10.2 ppm of zinc element and the endothermic peak occurred at the approximate temperature of 503 ºC and 595 ºC, and a slight decrease of about 15% can be seen at the beginning of the peak at the temperature of 126 ºC. Also, in the TBA-19 sample, which mostly contains zinc dolomite, there are two reactive peaks at 447ºC and 509ºC, followed by two other reactive peaks at 584ºC and 674ºC. Accordingly, increasing the amount of zinc in the dolomite structure causes a decrease in the reaction point in the form of a non-linear curve, while in iron-containing samples such as Ankerite, most of the reaction curves are linear (Kulp et al., 1951). In this way and based on this test, the presence of zinc in dolomites and the formation of zincian dolomite in the Tangedozdan area can be seen. To determine the composition, type, and origin of zinc in the Tangedozdan area, three samples were selected in such a way that based on the ICP-MS analysis performed on the samples, the first type of dolomite (TBA-15) a zinc content of 82 The second type dolomite sample (TBA-14) contains 2.10 ppm, and the third type dolomite zinc sample (TBA-19) contains 3.56 ppm. The results of the EPMA analysis show that in the TBA-19 (Zincian-dolomite), in addition to calcite and dolomite, the amount of zinc element is higher than the background limit and indicates the presence of zinc in the dolomite mineral structure. Based on these studies, three types of dolomites were detected, according to which the highest amount is related to Zincian-dolomite in the TBA-19 sample, followed by TBA-14 and TBA-15 dolomite. In the TBA-16, the ratio of Zn:Mg is from 0.4 to 0.16, while in the TBA-19 Zincian-dolomite sample, this value varies from 0.39 to 1.04. Based on the studies, Zincian-dolomite can be identified in the carbonate part along with zinc and lead non-sulfide mineralization in the Tangedozdan area. Zincian-dolomite shows the most distribution along with red to orange phase 3 dolomites. Based on this, Zincian-dolomite can be seen in the exogenous phase of the oxidation zone of the Tangedozdan area. Based on this, conducting different experiments in this area indicates the presence of zinc in the dolomite structure and the formation of zincian dolomite.

Keywords

• Geochemistry
• Mineralogy
• Zincian-dolomite
• Smithsonite
• Tangedozdan
• Sanandaj-Sirjan zone

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