Application of in situ titanite U–Pb geochronology to volcanic-hosted magnetite deposit: New constraints on the timing and genesis of the Zhibo deposit, Western Tianshan, NW China

The Awulale metallogenic belt within the Western Tianshan orogenic belt of northwestern China includes four large iron oxide deposits with a total resource of ∼1000 million metric tons (Mt) Fe. Among these, the Zhibo deposit is a large (337 Mt at 26–68 wt% Fe) volcanic-hosted magnetite deposit, where massive Ti-poor magnetite ores are hosted in the Carboniferous volcanic and volcaniclastic sequences. Here we use in situ U–Pb analyses of titanite...