Geochemical characteristics and genesis of the Zhouyoufang iron deposit in Huoqiu County, western Anhui Province

The Zhouyoufang iron deposit in the central part of the Huqiu iron orefield of western Anhui Province is tectonically located in the southern margin of North China platform, with ore-bearing strata developed in the upper part of the Neo-Archaean metamorphic series. Its iron-bearing minerals include specularite and magnetite. The study discussed the ore-forming material sources, metallogenic paleogeographic environment and genesis of the deposit through studying of the geochemical characteristics for ores and county rocks. The results show that the main ore-forming material sources of the Zhouyoufang iron deposit derived mainly from the high temperature seawater mixed with submarine volcanic hydrothermal and the deposit formed in a reducing marine environment of back-arc and foreland between oceanic island arc and continent. It can be preliminarily concluded that the deposit was a primary sedimentogenic metamorphic iron-rich deposit.