• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.767-785
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• 2021

World-class magnesite deposits are developed in the Dashiqiao mineralized district of the Jiao-Liao-Ji Belt in China. This belt extends to the northern side of the Korean Peninsula and hosts major magnesite deposits in the Dancheon region of North Korea. Magnesite ores from the Pailou deposits in the Dashiqiao district is classified into pure magnetite, chlorite-magnetite, chlorite-talc-magnetite, and dolomite groups depending on the constituent minerals. According to the result of petrographic study, magnesite was formed by the alteration of dolomite, and, talc, chlorite, and apatite were produced as late-stage alteration minerals that replaced the magnesite. Fluid inclusions observed in magnesite are a liquid-type inclusion, with a homogenization temperature of 121-250 ℃ and a salinity of 1.7-22.4 wt% NaCl equiv. The chlorite geothermometer, indicating the temperature of hydrothermal alteration, is 137~293 ℃, slightly higher than the homogenization temperature of fluid inclusions, and the pressure is calculated to be less than 3.2 kb. For magnesite mineralization in the study area, the initially formed-dolomite was subjected to replacement by Mg-rich fluid to form a magnesite ore body, and then it was enriched through regional metamorphism and hydrothermal alteration. It seems that altered minerals such as talc were crystallized by Si and Al-rich late-stage hydrothermal fluids. These results are similar to the genetic environments of the Daeheung deposit, a representative magnesite deposit in North Korea, and it is believed that the two deposits went through a similar geological and ore genetic process of magnesite mineralization.