Evaluation of metallogenic potential of the Nuggihalli greenstone belt, South India

Chromite from the north–south-trending schist belt of Nuggihalli (southern Karnataka), belonging to the greenstone belt of South India (3.0–3.5 Ga) and crystallising at 1178 °C under oxygen fugacity of −6.67 shows komatiitic affinity. The chemical data of the Cr-spinels when plotted in the form of the discriminant function of Johan (1979) show a remarkable follow-up of the curve A, which delineates the boundary between the ‘barren’ and ‘fertile’ (with respect to the plausible presence of sulphide phases) Cr-spinel bodies. Only a few samples plot marginally within the barren region (Fig. 1), suggesting that the chromite bands should hardly hold the possibility of becoming host of sulphide mineralisation of commercial relevance.