Prospects of integrated development of Bakchar iron deposit (Western Siberia, Russia)

Abstract

The relevance of the research. The authors have analyzed and estimated complex resources of the Bakchar deposit. Until now Bakchar deposit has been considered exclusively as a marine oolitic iron deposit. The studied rocks can be the subject of future mining for the first-priority payback of the facility. The main aim of the work was the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the potential associated mineral components of the Bakchar deposit. The methods: optical microscopy, petrographic analysis, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence analysis. Results. Due to the studies the authors have concluded that glauconite resources for the deposit are about 800 million tons. Resources are estimated at 34 million tons within western detail explored area (5 km2 ) of deposit with an average glauconite content of 27,8 % (glauconitolite - 4,6 million tons, glauconitic sandstone - 18,1 million tons, glauconite-chamosite-goethite ooidal iron ore - 11,3 million tons). Turonian sandy siltstones of the Ipatovo Formation are enriched with magnetite and ilmenite with their total average content in the rock of 15,2 %. The presence of these minerals provides a high magnetic signal (magnetic susceptibility) of sediments of 113,4…295,7·10-5 SI (the first and second quartiles, respectively). The resources of magnetite and ilmenite are about 2,75 million tons within the western area of deposit according to 13 drill holes. TiO 2 amounts about 815 thousand tons (with an average TiO 2 content of 29,6 %), and Fe 2 O 3 - 934,9 thousand tons (with an average Fe 2 O 3 content of 34 %) of these resources. Textural features of the studied rocks (low cementation) allow us to recommend hydraulic borehole mining as a method of priority exploitation of both glauconite deposits and magnetite-ilmenite layer.

Keywords

• associated components
• Bakchar deposit
• glauconite
• ilmenite
• resources
• Western Siberia