The Bandurrias Iron Ore Deposit, Atacama Region, Northern Chile

Bandurrias is a stratabound iron ore deposit in Cretaceous volcano-sedimentary rocks. It belongs to the Franja Ferrífera Principal (Espinoza 1979 and this Vol.), also known as the Fe-apatite subprovince from the Andean geosyncline metallo-genic province (Ruiz et al. 1965). This less than 30-km-wide belt extends from about Taltal (25 °) to south of La Serena (31 °) (Fig. 1). More than 50 iron ore deposits are known in the Franja Ferrifera Principal located in lavas, intrusives, or marine beds of Lower Cretaceous age. Those in sediments are stratabound and, while they are not very important economically (reserves between 0.1 to 1.5 million t), they are significant from a genetic point of view.