Farhad Ahmadnejad
Update: 2025-09-23

Farhad Ahmadnejad

Faculty of Science / Department of Earth Sciences

Master Theses

  1. Mineralogical and geochemical evolution of the Daresard bauxite deposit, Zagros folded belt, SW Iran: Implication for controlling factors of the REE distribution
    2023
    The Kuh-e-Nil anticline, which hosts the Daresard bauxite deposit, is located 30 km east of Dehdasht city (latitude 30°51'11'' N, longitude 50°55'01" E), Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, SW Iran. This deposit occurs in the Zagros Simply Folded Belt and at the boundary between the Cenomanian–Turonian shallow marine carbonates of the Sarvak Formation and the Santonian–Campanian carbonates of the Ilam Formation. Based on color, facies, and texture, four individual layers are recognized in the Daresard deposit from bottom to top; breccia bauxite, pisolitic bauxite, variegated soft bauxite, and bleached horizon. The Daresard bauxite ores are texturally diverse and often contain allogeneic, oolitic-conglomeratic, pisolitic, spongy, pseudo breccia, and clastic textures. Mineralogical studies indicate that boehmite, diaspore, gibbsite, hematite, goethite, and kaolinite are major minerals, and smectite, illite, anatase, rutile, calcite, and pyrite are minor minerals in the Daresard deposit. The presence of pisolitic-oolitic textures, growth of simple cortex around earlier pisoids, and pisoids with cortexes lacking radial and circular fractures indicate autochthonous origin. Geochemical data show that elements such as Fe2O3, Y, Cr, Th, HFSE, and REEs were enriched, and Al2O3, MnO, SiO2, Na2O, K2O, P2O5, CaO, Ni, Ba, Be, Ga, Co, W, Sr, V, Zr, and Ta were depleted during the bauxitization process. R-mode factor analysis revealed several significant interelemental relationships including: (1) Some low-soluble elements such as Zr, Ti, and Ga are concentrated in detrital zircons (Zr), anatase (Ti), and probably in boehmite, hematite and detrital minerals (Ga) during the final stage of bauxitization; (2) similar and meaningful weightings for U and Th suggest that the heavy mineral abundances (HFSE) may be locally important in controlling uranium behavior; (3) The distribution of light and heavy rare earth elements is controlled by the stability of REE carrier complexes and the presence of REE-bearing mineral phases; and (4) The (La/Yb)N ratio values are partly close to or remarkably lower than average upper continental crustal compositions and show a relatively minor fractionation between LREEs and HREE during bauxitization processes. This suggests that organic matter and bicarbonates play only a minor role during the bauxitization process, and fluctuations in (La/Yb)n ratios may reflect pH fluctuations in the soil solution. Cerium behaves differently from other REE elements. In the Daresard deposit, Ce anomalies show fluctuating behavior throughout the weathering profiles and have three maxima, characterized by Ce/Ce* values significantly above 1.5 . This feature suggests that cerianite was originally ubiquitous in the studied profiles. Due to the identification of parisite as an authigenic Ce-bearing mineral in the Daresard deposit, the following model can be used to explain the observed fluctuations: cerianite solubilization via cerium reduction → cerium transportation per descensum → parisite precipitation. This cycle has been repeated several times due to periodical fluctuations in the groundwater table. Several indexes, including REE patterns, Eu anomaly, bivariate Cr and Ni plots, and immobile element ratios confirm a protolith contribution from the bedrock argillaceous limestone and suggest that the parental material for the Daredard bauxite was provided from siliciclastic sediments derived from a continental margin.
  2. Mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the Yekshaveh karst-type bauxite deposit, Sanandaj - Sirjan Zone, NW Iran: Constraints on provenance and ore-forming processes
    2023
    The Yakshawa bauxite deposit is located 13 km southeast of Bukan city (latitude 36° 28 '28" N, 138 longitude 46° 18' 31'' E), West-Azerbaijan province, NW Iran. The bauxite ores comprise a series of layer-shaped and lenticular bodies with overall trends of NE-SW that occur as infills of karstic depressions and sinkholes within the middle Permian underlying carbonates of the Ruteh Formation. Bauxite horizons in the study area are distributed irregularly but have relatively uniform thicknesses averaging 11 to 18 m and are overlain by the late Permian Nessen Formation. Based on texture, composition, and color, six individual layers are recognized in the Yakshawa deposit, which are, from bottom to top; i) breccia bauxite; ii) clayey bauxite; iii) ferritic bauxite; iv) mottled bauxite; v) brown bauxite, vi) bleached horizon. Detailed mineralogical analysis reveals that diaspore, hematite, illite, anatase, and rutile are the major mineral components accompanied by minor amounts of kaolinite, dickite, halloysite, quartz, calcite, pyrite, and clinochlore. The most important textures observed in the Yakshawa deposit include colloformic, ooidic, pisoidic, spastoid textures, and pelitomorphic clay-rich groundmass. Interelemental relationship analyses of the ores by using R-mode factor analysis revealed several key findings: i) heavy minerals with low solubility, including rutile and zircon, accompanied by Al oxyhydroxides during bauxite formation control the distribution of critical metals (Ga, Ti, Nb, Hf, Ta, and W) showing similar geochemical behavior; ii) the weathering of biotite results in the expulsion, from the octahedral positions, of Fe3+, which forms oxyhydroxides that can strongly adsorb V: iii) The strong correlation between Y and P suggests that the distribution of Y may be related to the presence of Y-bearing REE minerals such as xenotime: iv) In the Yakshawa deposit almost all REE-bearing phases bauxite are phosphate minerals including monazite-Ce, xenotime-Y, and florencite-Ce. Thus, the abundance of REE is largely controlled by P-rich minerals. Several parameters, including Eu-anomaly, immobile element ratio (e.g., Ti/Nb, Zr/Hf, and Nb/Ta), and Log Cr vs Log Ni were used to discuss the parental affinity or precursor rock(s) of the Yakshawa bauxite ores. The results suggest that the bauxite ores of the Yakshawa deposit have a genetic relationship with Middle-Late Permian mafic volcanic.
  3. تاثیر کانی‌شناسی خاک ‌رس بر خواص خمیری آن
    2023
    خاک رس به عنوان یکی از مصالح مهم موجود در طبیعت به شیوه‌های گوناگون در پروژه‌ها مورد استفاده قرار می-گیرد.رس‌ها کانی‌های سیلیکات آلومینیوم آب‌داری هستندکه از ترکیب دو پایه چهاروجهی سیلیکا وهشت وجهی آلومینا تشکیل شده‌اند.کانی‌های رسی از لحاظ ساختاری به شکل ورقه‌ای هستند که خود از لایه‌های سیلیکا و آلومینا تشکیل شده‌اند واز نظر شیمیایی در سطح خود دارای بار الکتریکی منفی هستند که این امر زمینه‌ساز واکنش این کانی‌ها شده است. نوع کانی‌های رسی و ترکیبات همراه آنها بر روی رفتار آنها در واکنش به جذب آب و به تبع ایجاد خواص خمیری تاثیرگذار است. برای پیش‌بینی رفتار رس‌ها با ترکیب کانی‌شناسی خاص لازم است کانی‌های رسی خاکو ترکیبات آنها مشخص و خواص مهندسی آنها اندازه‌گیری شود.در این پژوهش برای بررسی تاثیر ترکیبات رسی بر خواص خمیری آن، از محدوده شرق شهر بانه و شرق آرمرده و شمال قروه نمونه‌برداری شد و با آنالیزهای ‌‌XRD‌و XRF‌ کانی‌های رسی و ترکیبات موجود در نمونه‌ها مورد بررسی قرار گرفت و سپس با اندازه‌گیری حدود اتربرگ، ارتباط خواص خمیری و ترکیبات رسی مورد تحلیل قرار گرفت. تحلیل نتایج آنالیز و خواص خمیری نشان داد که در بین کانی‌های غالب رسی، همبستگیمونت‌موریلونیت با مقدار 949/0 با PI از ایلیت و کائولینیت بیشتر است.همچنین نتایج نشان داد که در بین کانی های موجود در خاک، کوارتز ، کلسیت، ارتوکلاز ، آلبیت با PI دارای همبستگی منفی و ترکیباتی مانندAl2O3، Fe2O3، MgO ، TiO2 و Na2O دارای همبستگی مثبت می باشند که بیشترین مقدار مربوط به TiO2 می‌باشد. همچنین نتایج نشان داد که برخی عناص مانند Cu، Zn، Co و Cr دارای همبستگی و عناصری مانند، U، Ba، Pb و Ni دارای همبستگی منفی با PI می باشند. از دیگر نتایج بدست آمده در این تحقیق می‌توان گفت که در بین سه محدوده مورد مطالعه، خاکهای محدوده قروه دارای بیشترین پتانسیل تورمی می‌باشد.