Alpine Peridotite Podiform Chromite Deposits

General Setting
Major producers of much of the worlds chromium despite their small size relative to
layered complexes. Generally, are more desirable because the Cr/Fe ratio of the chromite
is higher than the LMIs and the layers of chromite although aerially less extensive are
thicker and hence more easily minable.
This deposit group takes its name from the association of the chromite ores with
serpentinized peridotites. The association was first recognized in the Alps despite the fact
that the Alpine deposits are too low in grade to constituent an economic reserve.
Distribution
Occur in all the major Paleozoic or younger tectonic belts of the world. Maps show the
very close association between convergent plate boundaries and/or major crustal sutures
and these deposits. Most important producing districts are in the Philippines, New
Caledonia, Turkey and Cuba. Important low grade deposits occur in the Franciscan
Complex of the California Coastal Ranges. Within any one district the actual number of
chromite deposits might number in the thousands, but usually only a few are large enough
to be economic.

Form
In contrast to the layered complexes alpine peridotites are often highly deformed and/or
attenuated. Ore bodies are usually quite small with lengths of a few thousand meters at

most with widths and thicknesses on the order of a few tens of meters. In cross section,
many of the deposits appear tabular to pod-shaped, hence the term "podiform" deposits.
Within a district the deposits may have many forms and orientations, either parallelling
layering of the host or cross cutting it.

All deposits have been extensively altered, with the host rock often undergoing complete
alteration to serpentine. In addition, faulting is ubiquitous. High angle faults are common
with the ore zones sometimes appearing to be squeezed or plastered along fault zones. In
other cases, faults offset ore zones, but do not appear to localize ore bodies and clearly
post-date mineralization.
The chromite occurs in a series of discontinuous bands. Layering in these deposits is
indistinct, to absent. The chromite grains are often rounded and occasionally display pullapart structures. The former indicates post-depositional abrasion, possibly during
squeezing into dilated fault zones and the latter indicates extensive post-depositional
extensional deformation.
Setting
Occur in structurally complex setting with extensive post-ore deformation. Extensive
alteration and chaotic nature of the host rocks has made further understanding of the
geology of these deposits a matter of much speculation until quite recently.
Discovery of relatively unaltered deposits in Cyprus and Onam has allowed more
quantitative study. Now realized the host rocks consist of four distinct stratigraphic units
(Figure). The uppermost unit (1) is comprised of deep water sediments, radiolarian chert,
siliceous shale (umber), minor limestone and rare greywacke. This is underlain by
serpentinized pillow basalt cross cut by diabase dikes (2) which in turn overlays gabbro
with minor interbedded ultraniafics and chromitite (3). These units rest on a base of

peridotite and dunite (4) which contains most of the minable chromitite. This sequence
was termed the Steinmann Trinity. The chromite layers themselves are intimately
associated with the dunites, often completely encased in dunite or resting immediately on
a layer of dunite. Ore bodies in the ultraniafic portion of the sequence (4) generally are
more tabular and show less tendency toward deformation. The less common chromite
lenses in the gabbro (3) are the products of extreme deformation.

Genesis
Remained something of a mystery until quite recently. Dredging of the ocean basins and
the subsequent reconstruction of the geology indicated the oceanic crust consisted of 4
layers; deep water sediments; pillow basalt; gabbro and diabase; and ultramafics. The
term ophiolite was coined to define this sequence. Economic geologists were quick to
recognize that the alpine peridotites were petrologically identical and suggested that these
were the nothing more than slabs of oceanic material that had somehow gotten emplaced
on continental crust.
Suggested that an ophiolite sequence forms when mantle peridotite is partially melted
generating a basalt magma. The magma rises through fissures at divergent plate margins
to emplace itself on the seafloor as pillow lava (Figure). Beneath the pillow lavas slow
cooling magmas differentiate to generate first ultramafic rocks and chromite layers and
finally gabbro. Subsequent spreading tectonically disturbs the layers as does the
emplacement on the continental land mass. (Some geologists argue the ultramafics are
not differentiates, but residual material left after partial melting. This theory does not
easily accommodate the formation of the chromite layers.)

One unanswered question is how the ophiolite sequences end up on the continents.
Theoretically, their greater density should cause them to be subducted back into the
mantle. The term obduction has been used to describe the emplacement on continents, but
there is no general consensus how this occurs. Two suggestions are the most widely
accepted. One (Figure) allows for the underthrusting of a continental land mass beneath
oceanic crust. Its lower density causes it eventually to rise buoyantly bringing the
intervening oceanic crust/mantle up with it. The second mechanism relies on inflation of
oceanic crust during the serpentinization process, which involves a significant increase in
volume, and the subsequent gravity sliding of the oceanic crust/mantle onto continental
crust (Figure).

Troodos, Cyprus
The island of Cyprus has attracted attention in recent years because it contains a mafic
intrusive complex that is thought to represent an excellent example of an ophiolite slice.
The ophiolite complex, known as the Troodos Massif, was emplaced during the
Cretaceous period. It consists of pillow basalts overlying a sheeted dike complex, and
then an intrusive complex of gabbro that grades downward into olivine gabbro, then into
an ultramafic body of harzburgite and dunite. Some of the harzburgites are serpentinized.
The upper parts of the gabbro and the lower basalts are cut by many closely spaced
diabase dikes that form conspicuous sheeted masses. They are overlain by fine-grained
ferruginous, siliceous, sulfide bearing sediments called umbers. The complex thus

includes all three layers of oceanic crust, the most important here being Layer 3, an
assemblage of lower cumulate ultramafic rocks and upper gabbros.

The deformed tectonized harzburgites contain scores of podiform chromite deposits; 64

in a 16km2 area. They occur as isolated pods and layers in dunite near harzburgite, in
harzburgite within dunite lenses, or in narrow dunite envelopes, or jackets. Chromitesilicate textures include primary cumulate textures and silicate overgrowths over
chromite, and secondary ones such as younger schlieren, or sheared, "strung out" textures
produced by deformation. The ore is in isolated pods and discontinuous layers of variable
size and grade. The pods do not seem to fit a pattern.
It appears that the upper part of the plutonic complex evolved as a differentiated body of
magmatic cumulates laid down upon a basement of depleted-mantle harzburgite. The
chromitites originated as isolated magmatic segregation ore deposits near the base of the
cumulate dunite during episodic crystallization. Postcumulus mobilization and
accompanying deformation of the lower ultramafic rocks caused the tectonic overprint of
schlieren structures on earlier magmatic textures.

Characteristics of Alpine Peridotite Chromite Complexes

1. Occur as small pod-shaped bodies characterized by extreme deformation.
2. Associated with ophiolite sequences, occurring with dunites in the basal
portion of the sequence.
3. Restricted to rocks of Phanerozoic age. Long axis of the district parallels
the trend of the orogenic belt.
4. Close association with subduction zones and/or crustal sutures.
5. Layering often minor or absent.
6. Chromlte only ore mineral of significance, minor nickel.
7. Deposits thought to represent slices of oceanic lithosphere obducted unto
continental land masses.