Geochemical and Mineralogical Characteristics of Fe-Ni Laterite Ore of Sarıçimen (Çaldıran-Van) Area in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey

Abstract

The Sari{dotless}çimen Fe-Ni laterite ore is located 15 km east of Çaldi{dotless}ran County, northeast of Lake Van. This area is situated in the eastern Anatolia accretionary complex of Turkey, close to the Iran boundary. It is the first transported Fe-Ni rich laterite to be described from this area. This paper concentrates on the mineralogical and textural features of the ore minerals and the transported Fe-Ni laterite zone. These transported laterites are very inhomogeneous and contain very abundant zoned chromite grains, which have been altered to magnetite. SEM/probe investigations indicate that Fe-Ni is depleted in the core chromite and increases in the magnetite rim. A sedimentary transported laterite zone exhibits a high proportion of silcretes and ferruginous materials and chemically contains 29-61wt% SiO2 and 11.8-48.7 wt% Fe2O3. The average contents of Al2O3, TiO2, MnO and P are 4.81, 0.37, 0.32, and 0.03 (all in wt%) respectively. The highest Ni value obtained from the transported lateritic ferruginous zone is 1.16 wt%. The Pt and Pd concentrations are low, ranging from 39 ppb to 6 ppb and 21 ppb to 5 ppb, respectively. The Au value reaches up to 3 ppb. The diversity in chemical compositions of transported laterites is related to fracturing, erosion, corrosion, transportation, quantity of clastic material with different alteration history and diagenesis. © Tübi̇tak.