Banded Iron Formation of Bonai-Keonjhar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Banded Iron Formation of Bonai-Keonjhar - Essay Example BK is the youngest iron ore in the horseshoe belt. The focus is on Banspani-Jilling–Jajang bit of the iron ore. BIF of Banspani-Jilling–Jajang section of BK belt covers a section of the Precambrian super crustal north Odisha iron ore super group. Geology: the BIF hosts tabular strata-bound bodies mainly formed of high-grade hematite ores. Banspan-Jilling–Jajang covers about 40 sq. km. above the BIF lie the high-grade hematite ores which cover three stratigraphic positions. The southern range has massive and hard laminated cores. These ore bodies form the bulk of the resource. They are tubular in shape, irregular in size and have a thickness ranging from 2 and 50m. Langalata forms the bulk of the ore deposit, taking about 73% of it. Banspani-Jilling–Jajang deposits have a total reserve of about 61.7 million tons. Petrography: the rock types in the study area include banded hematite Jasper (BHJ), banded manganese formation (BMnF), banded hematite shale (BHS), banded shale, banded hematite quartzite (BHZ) and iron ore bodies. BHJ and BHZ are dominant rock types. They have alternating bands of silica and iron mineral. Some of the iron minerals in the BIF include goethite, martite, partitioned magnetite, hematite, and specularity. Hematite is the dominant iron mineral in the area. The varieties of silica forming alternate bands with the mentioned iron minerals include jasper, quartz, and chert. The iron minerals are formed by three distinct processes; thematization, marketization, and graphitization.