Relationship between altered pyroxene diorite and the magnetite mineralization in the Chilean Iron Belt,with emphasis on the El Algarrobo iron deposits (Atacama region,Chile)

North of El Algarrobo (one of the four main deposits of the Chilean Iron Belt), the iron-mineralization (magnetite-etrmolite/actinolite-apatite) is related to clinoand orthopyroxene diorite intrusions which have crystallized at shallow depth (4km) under increasing oxygen fugacities. The supercritical fluid phase exsolved during cooling after the consolidation of the plutons (800–900°C), results in a H⁺, Cl^– and sodic enrichment, and in the sequential leaching of Fe (at less than 700°C), then Ca and Mg (between 600 and 500°C) from minerals of the primary magmatic diorite assemblage: titanomagnetite-ilmenite, plagioclase (An_70–40), augite, hypersthene. As a consequence of the cationic leaching, the lower mobility of silica and aluminium and the enrichment in sodium, residual altered dioritic rocks present a retromorphic mineral assemblage evolving down to boundary conditions of the greenchist-amphibolite facies (450°C). Fe, Mg and Ca are carried in cationic form associated with Cl^– anions, toward cooler rocks where they are precipitated. The deposition (between 550 and 450°C) of magnetite, followed iron-mineralization paragenesis, and occurred in fractured zones located both in altered diorites and contact andesites.