ILMENITE FROM WEATHERING CRUST AND LOWER CRETACEOUS SEDIMENTS OF THE BYRZULIVSKE TITANIUM ORE DEPOSIT

Over the course of the geological history of its development, the Byrzulivske deposit has formed an ore-bearing system consisting of formation units of different ages and different genetic types (titanium-bearing rocks of the crystalline basement and their weathering crust; Aptian-Lower Albian continental sediments formed as a result of weathering crust erosion and redeposition; Upper Albian coastal and marine formations formed as a result of weathering crust and Aptian-Lower Albian continental sediments erosion and redeposition). Based on the chemical analysis of ilmenite, the lateral distribution of this mineral with different oxide contents (TiO2, FeO, Fe2O3, FeO/Fe2O3, V2O5, P2O5, Cr2O3) in the weathering crust, continental and coastal-marine sediments of the Lower Cretaceous was studied. It has been found that the chemical composition and spatial distribution of the average ilmenite content with different oxide content is due to: 1) in the weathering crust — by the petrographic composition, peculiarities of mineral formation of crystalline basement rocks and hypergene transformations of the mineral in different zones of the eluvium; 2) in continental deposits of the Aptian-Lower Albian age — by the chemical composition of the mineral, its distribution in the weathered crust, facies conditions of sedimentation and transformations during sedimentogenesis 3) in the Upper Albian coastal and marine sediments — chemical composition, distribution in the weathering crust and continental Aptian-Lower Albian formations, mineral transformations and its redistribution in coastal and marine facies conditions. It was found that the degree of alteration of ilmenite increases in the direction of the zone of disintegration and leaching of eluvium → kaolinite zone of eluvium → continental sediments → coastal and marine sediments. The direction and strength of correlations between oxides in ilmenite from eluvium, Aptian-Lower Albian and Upper Albian sediments were investigated. It has been found that in ilmenite from the studied formations there is an inverse strong correlation between the content of FeO and Fe2O3. In ilmenite from the formations of all studied stratigraphic levels, a direct correlation of varying strength is present only between the content of Fe2O3 and TiO2, TiO2 and V2O5, P2O5 and V2O5. The correlations between other oxides in ilmenite are inverse of varying strength.