ORIGIN OF SULFIDE MINERALIZATION IN MADAN-KUDHAN AND KOLIHAN MINES, KHETRI COPPER BELT, RAJASTHAN

Abstract

Present study is confined to the Madan-Kudhan and Kolihan mines of the Khetri Copper belt extends for about 80 km in northern Rajasthan. Mineralization is more or less strata bound and the host rock for mineralization is garnetiferous chlorite schist and amphibolite quartzite. Towards the middle of the Proterozoic Delhi super group. The rocks together with the ores were deformed in two phases of metamorphism, one is progressive and another is retrogressive. The study of the host rock suggest that the maximum temperature and pressure during metamorphism are respectively 5006000 C and < 5.5 kbar. Principal ore minerals are OL chalcopyrite, cubanite, pyrrhotite, pyrite, arsenopyrite, ilemenite and locally sphalerite. Gangue minerals are quartz, chlorite, garnet, graphite arvj biotite. The ores are metamorphosed at > 4910 C and the sulfide assemblages are explained in terms of aS2 during metamorphism. Ore minerals show a mutual boundary relationship with host rock. XRF study gives idea about the source rock (granite). Metamorphism and source rock granite in these mines led to conclude that the entire mineralization was originally "hypothermal class of hydrothermal deposits".