///Located in the eastern Awulale metallogenic belt of Western Tianshan Mountains, the large-size Zhibo iron deposit is hosted in basaltic andesite, andesite and pyroclastic rocks of the Lower Carboniferous Dahalajunshan Formation. On the basis of observed mineral assemblages and ore textures as well as mineral analyses, two periods of ore deposition have been recognized: magmatic period and hydrothermal ore-forming period, which could be further subdivided into three metallogenic stages, i.e., magnetite-diopside-epidote stage(a1), magnetite-K-feldspar-epidote stage (b₁) and quartz-sulfide stage (b₂). Electron microprobe analyses show that the magnetite with magmatic features has higher content of FeOT and lower content of Al₂O₃, CaO, MgO, SiO₂ in comparison with the magnetite with hydrothermal features. Both ternary plot of TiO₂-Al₂O₃-MgO and Ca+Al+Mn versus Ti+V discriminant diagram suggest that the formation of the Zhibo iron deposit was associated with volcanic activity and hydrothermal metasomatism of magmatic-hydrothermal fluid.