It extends as a north-south beld along the western part of the Chilean regions of Coquimbo and Atacama, chiefly between the cities of La Serena and Taltal.

[4] Manto-type deposits are concentrated in the northern part of the belt and are chiefly emplaced on rocks of La Negra Formation.

[1] The ores of the Chilean Iron Belt formed in separate pulses in the Cretaceous period as result of magmatic and hydrothermal processes.

[4] Thus iron oxide apatite magma cooled into rock variously from surface volcanoes to depths of 10 km over even more.

[4] Some geologists have speculated that a large meteorite impact in the Pacific during the Cretaceous period may have set in motion a series of tectonic changes that led to the formation the ores.