Composition and origin of lateritic nickel ore at Tagaung Taung, Burma

Abstract

The recently discovered lateritic nickel ore deposit on the summit area of the Tagaung Taung contains about 40 million DMT nickel-saprolite ore with approximately 2% Ni. The serpentinite massif is covered with a thick weathering mantle consisting of saprolite, limonite, and an allochthonous lateritic surface layer. The thickness, nickel content, and physical properties of the ore are very variable. The main minerals in the nickel saprolite ore are nickeliferous serpentine and smectite. Microprobe analyses show a strong depletion of Mg with increasing nickel content in the serpentine minerals; smectite generally contains less nickel than serpentine. Chemical analyses of samples from more than 100 drill holes are used to calculate the mean chemical compositions, mean accumulation factors, and gain and loss of major and trace elements for the various layers. This permits a quantitative approach to be made to the genetic history of the weathering mantle. Gain and loss determinations on the basis of constant chromium content and of constant volume give nearly identical results for the saprolite layer. Calculations on the basis of Ni/Cr ratios indicate that three-quarters of a former 20-m-thick limonite layer has been eroded away. Only the lower part of the original limonite layer with a relatively high SiO₂ content is preserved. The kaolinite- and illite-rich surface layer is a mixture of limonite and weathered clayey material, which was probably derived from adjacent rocks. Part of the autochthonous weathering section is contaminated with infiltrated allochthonous surface material. It is not possible that colluvial-alluvial deposition of clayey material from nonultramafic rocks could have taken place under the present geomorphic regime. Thus, lateritization of the serpentinite and deposition of siallitic material must have occurred before exposure of the Tagaung Taung in its present form.