The Darzi-Vali bauxite deposit, West-Azarbaidjan Province, Iran: Critical metals distribution and parental affinities

As for parental affinity, the Eu anomalies show negligible fluctuations (0.82-0.94) all along the deposit confirming that bauxitization does not affect the effectiveness of this provenance proxy. The average Eu/Eu* value (0.89) of the ore is relatively far afield from that of the average carbonate bedrock (1.3) and close to that of the average mafic protolith (0.94), and similar results are also obtained using the Sm/Nd and Tb/Tb* proxies. Bivariate plots of Eu anomaly versus Sm/Nd and Tb anomalies further support the idea that mafic rocks are probably related to the volcanic activities. These volcanic activities affected the Iranian platform during the Upper Permian as proposed for other bauxite deposits in northwestern Iran. These mafic rocks were the probable precursor of the Darzi-Vali bauxite ore.