Chromite deposits in China and their origin

Abstract

The major chromite resources of China occur in ophiolites and continental intrusions. Podiform chromite deposits are mainly developed in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic ophiolitic mantle sequences. They occur as tabular, lenticular, or irregular masses hosted by dunite lithologies, or dunite lenses, or harzburgite associated with dunite lenses. Main stratiform deposits occur within the Archean Northern China craton and are named as the Gaosi-type deposits, which are contained in intrusions similar to their Alaskan-type counterparts and are characterised by their ring-shaped ores. Stratiform deposits are also found in Phanerozoic ophiolites. Chromites in the ophiolites are chemically divided into high-A1 and high-Cr types, both of which plot in the alpine type field. Chromites from the Gaosi-type deposits belong to high-Fe type, possessing uniform Al contents. The podiform chromitites were generated from magmatic pockets in the mantle sequences, whereas those deposits (such as the Dadao deposit) in cumulate sequences had a similar origin but crystallized at shallower depths. Stratiform Gaosi-type deposits should have formed by accumulation of chromites which were in equilibrium with an ultramafic magma with a uniform Al content. © 1992 Springer-Verlag.