Banded Iron Formation of Bonai-Keonjhar - Essay Example

Banded Iron Formation (BIF) of Bonai-Keonjhar (BK) The article is about banded iron formation (BIF) of bonai-keonjhar (BK) belt. Over the years, the belt has been a subject of both commercial and academic research. Commercial studies seek to unravel its productivity whereas academic researches are concerned about its geology. BK is the youngest iron ore in the horse-shoe 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 supercrustal north Odisha iron ore super group.

Geology: the BIF hosts tabular stratabound 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 ores. These ore bodies form the bulk of the resource. They are tabular in shape, irregular in size and have 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 millions tones. 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 mineral in the BIF include goethite, martite, martitised magnetite, hematite and specularite. 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; hematization, martitization and goethitization. Works Cited D. Beura & B. Satpathy. Petrographic Characterisation of Banded Iron Formation of Bonai- Keonjhar Belt with special reference to Banspani-Jilling-Jajang Sector, Odisha. International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering, 5(4), August 2012, pp. 767-774