Mineralogy, chemistry and genesis of Nishikhal manganese ores of South Orissa, India

Manganese ores of Nishikhal occur as distinctly conformable bands in the khondalite suite of rocks belonging to the Precambrian Eastern Ghats complex of south Orissa, India. Manganese minerals recorded are cryptomelane, romanechite, pyrolusite, with minor amounts of jacobsite, hausmannite, braunite, lithiophorite, birnessite and pyrophanite. Goethite, graphite, hematite and magnetite are the other opaque minerals and quartz, orthoclase, garnet, kaolinite, apatite, collophane, fibrolite, zircon, biotite and muscovite are the gangue minerals associated with these ores. The mineral chemistry of some of the phases, as well as the modes of association of phosphorous in these ores have been established. The occurrence of well-defined bands of manganese ore; co-folding of manganese ore bands and associated metasedimentary country rocks; the min-eral assemblage of spessartite-sillimanite-braunite-jacobsite-hausmannite; the geochemical association of Mn-Ba-Co-Ni-Zn together with the Si versus Al and Na versus Mg plots of the manganese ores suggest that the Nishikhal deposit is a metamorphosed Precambrian lacustrine deposit. Continental weathering appears to be the source for manganese and iron. After deposition and probable diagenesis, the manganese-rich sediments were metamorphosed along with conformable psammitic and pelitic sediments under granulite facies conditions, and subsequently underwent supergene enrichment to produce the present deposit. Received: 14 March 1995 / Accepted: 11 April 1996