Magnetic prospecting and geochemical analysis for the mineral exploration of Mali-Dera deposits, Kohistan Island Arc-Pak
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Magnetic prospecting and geochemical analysis for the mineral exploration of Mali‑Dera deposits, Kohistan Island Arc‑Pakistan Syed Tallataf Hussain Shah1 · Faizan‑ur‑Rehman Qaiser1 · Nangyal Ghani Khan1 · Taimur Mir1 · Muhammad Jabir1 · Wasim Akram1 · M. Muneeb‑ur‑Rehman1 Received: 11 December 2019 / Accepted: 21 August 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Chromite deposits have long been reported and exploited in Northern Pakistan as a result of the ongoing convergence of Indian and Asian plates. This research work is a study of one such prospect. We used geophysical and geochemical tools such as magnetic susceptibility at seventy-seven observation stations along with fifteen rock samples collected for geochemical studies. Our geochemical analysis reveals a very high value of Fe, Mn, Cu, and Ni in regions of high magnetic susceptibility indicating the possibility of the presence of Magnetite, Chondrite, Copper-pyrites, and Pentlandite Ores. In addition, we also conducted the correlations analysis to investigate the potential association between various geochemical variables including trace elements to evaluate the potential of the ores for economic minerals others than chromite. Our PCs analysis result presents a clear picture that most of the minerals such as Fe, Ni, Co, Cd, Mg, Mn, and Pd are produced by the same source. Our various analyses are in perfect agreement with previous literature indicating the presence of economical mining of Chromite. Keywords Mineral prospecting · Kohistan island arc · Magnetic survey · Geochemical analysis · Chromite
Introduction The Kohistan island arc (KIA) is crammed between the Asian and Indian continents in the NW Himalayas and is believed to be the remnant of the Cretaceous island arc (Tahirkheli 1982). Shyok Suture also referred to as the Northern Suture (Coward et al. 1986) or the Main Karakoram Thrust marks the northern extent of KIA with the Asian continent to the north (Tahirkheli 1982; Tirrul 1989). The origin of this suture dates back 100 Ma ago (Petterson and Windley 1991). Collison between the KIA and Eurasian plate resulted in crustal thickening and crustal deformation (Rehman et al. 2011). Main tectonic events in the Kohistan Island Arc area were perhaps related to the creation and closure of the back-arc basin before the collision with the Indian continent. This back-arc sequence of Cretaceous is exposed along the Shyok Suture Zone (Khan 1989; Shah et al. 2018). Kohistan’s geological scenario did not produce a coherent overview, first because of its complex evolutionary history as * Faizan‑ur‑Rehman Qaiser [email protected] 1
COMSATS University Islamabad, College Road, Tobe Camp, Abbottabad 22060, KPK, Pakistan
an island arc on the northwestern margin of the Indian plate, and secondly because of its subsequent involvement in the interaction of two prevailing continental blocks. The effect is diverse reminiscent of its mixed rocks and the superimposed complex structures that distinguish it from t
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