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Genesis of Manganese Deposits in the Ali Khanzai Block of the Zhob Ophiolite, Pakistan: Inferences from Geochemistry and Mineralogy

  • Petrology and Ore Deposits
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Abstract

The Zhob ophiolite comprises the Naweoba, Omzha and Ali Khanzai blocks, which are surrounded by the sediments of the Alozai Group and Loralai Formation. The Ali Khanzai Block contains metamorphic, ultramafic, gabbroic, volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks with associated chert. The Zhob manganese deposits found in the Ali Khanzai Block, occur in banded, lenticular and massive forms within red to brown coloured metachert. Braunite and pyrolusite are the main constituent manganese-bearing minerals with minor hausmannite, hematite and barite while quartz is the major gangue mineral with some carbonate minerals. Geochemical evidence from the major oxides indicates that the manganese mineralization and associated metachert at Zhob were formed by hydrothermal activity with little contribution from contemporaneous volcanic materials and this is confirmed by high Fe/Mn and low Co/Zn ratios and trace element patterns. These deposits formed along with seafloor spreading centres and were later obducted as part of Ali Khanzai Block of Zhob ophiolite.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the six months, HRD Foreign scholarships of the Centre of Excellence in Mineralogy, University of Balochistan, Quetta, which was approved by the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan under its PSDP development project “Capacity Building and Strengthening of the Centre of Excellence in Mineralogy”. The research was also partly supported by the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan “National Research Program for Universities (NRPU) Project #3593” to Muhammad Ishaq Kakar. The authors are grateful to the reviewers for their constructive comments which improved the manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-020-1337-3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Excellence in Mineralogy, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan

    Muhammad Ayoub Khan & Muhammad Ishaq Kakar

  2. Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University, Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 2, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Thomas Ulrich

  3. National Center of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan

    Liaqat Ali

  4. School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 3YE, UK

    Andrew C. Kerr

  5. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan

    Khalid Mahmood

  6. Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences, Quetta, Pakistan

    Rehanul Haq Siddiqui

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Khan, M.A., Kakar, M.I., Ulrich, T. et al. Genesis of Manganese Deposits in the Ali Khanzai Block of the Zhob Ophiolite, Pakistan: Inferences from Geochemistry and Mineralogy. J. Earth Sci. 31, 884–895 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-020-1337-3

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