Occurrence of nonpegmatite beryllium in the United States

Warner, Lawrence; Holser, William T.; Wilmarth, V. R.; Cameron, Eugene N.

doi:10.3133/pp318

Cited by 20 publications

(35 citation statements)

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“…No further work was recommended. Beryllium was first reported from the Cornudas Mountains during the 1940s [163]. A few companies have examined the Cornudas Mountains unsuccessfully for high concentrations of REE, niobium, zirconium, and titanium.…”

Section: Cornudas Mountains Districtmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rare Earth Elements (REE) Deposits Associated with Great Plain Margin Deposits (Alkaline-Related), Southwestern United States and Eastern Mexico

McLemore

2018

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W.G. Lindgren in 1933 first noted that a belt of alkaline-igneous rocks extends along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains and Basin and Range provinces from Alaska and British Columbia southward into New Mexico, Trans-Pecos Texas, and eastern Mexico and that these rocks contain relatively large quantities of important commodities such as, gold, fluorine, zirconium, rare earth elements (REE), tellurium, gallium, and other critical elements. In New Mexico, these deposits were called Great Plain Margin (GPM) deposits, because this north-south belt of alkaline-igneous rocks roughly coincides with crustal thickening along the margin between the Great Plains physiographic province with the Basin and Range (including the Rio Grande rift) and Rocky Mountains physiographic provinces, which extends into Trans-Pecos Texas and eastern Mexico. Since 1996, only minor exploration and development of these deposits in New Mexico, Texas, and eastern Mexico has occurred because of low commodity prices, permitting issues, and environmental concerns. However, as the current demand for gold and critical elements, such as REE and tellurium has increased, new exploration programs have encouraged additional research on the geology of these deposits. The lack of abundant quartz in these systems results in these deposits being less resistant to erosion, being covered, and not as well exposed as other types of quartz-rich deposits, therefore additional undiscovered alkaline-related gold and REE deposits are likely in these areas. Deposits of Th-REE-fluorite (±U, Nb) epithermal veins and breccias are found in the several GPM districts, but typically do not contain significant gold, although trace amounts of gold are found in most GPM districts. Gold-rich deposits in these districts tend to have moderate to low REE and anomalously high tungsten and sporadic amounts of tellurium. Carbonatites are only found in New Mexico and Mexico. The diversity of igneous rocks, including alkaline-igneous rocks, and associated mineral deposits along this boundary suggests that this region is characterized by highly fractionated and differentiated, multiple pulses of mantle-derived magmas evolving to lower crustal magmas related to the subduction of the Farallon plate. The differences in incompatible trace elements, including REE and beryllium, between the different granitic to rhyolite rocks are likely related to either differences in the crustal rocks that were assimilated during magmatic differentiation or by potential minor contamination from crustal sources and/or magma mixing. Deep-seated fracture systems or crustal lineaments apparently channeled the magmas and hydrothermal fluids. Once magmas and metal-rich fluids reached shallow levels, the distribution and style of these intrusions, as well as the resulting associated mineral deposits were controlled by local structures and associated igneous rock compositions.

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Section: Cornudas Mountains Districtmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Past exploration for Be in the Cornudas Mountains was inconclusive. A few samples assayed as much as 0.2% BeO [163]. Beryllium is found in feldspar, nepheline, aegirine, and eudialite within dikes, sills, and laccoliths in the Cornudas Mountains; no Be minerals have been identified.…”

Section: Cornudas Mountains Districtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rare Earth Elements (REE) Deposits Associated with Great Plain Margin Deposits (Alkaline-Related), Southwestern United States and Eastern Mexico

McLemore

2018

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“…In similar iron-manganese ochers from Tertiary geyserites and travertines in the Golconda deposit, up to 0.016% Be0 (and up to 4% tungsten oxide) has been found. It is suggested that the iron and manganese were precipitated from hot springs in the form of a gel, which absorbed the beryllium and tungsten carried by the springs (20). High beryllium concentrations (0.07%) are known in sediments from a well in the area around Salton Sea Lake in Southern California (17).…”

Section: Elementsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…In Japan, hot sulfate springs have yielded up to 0.01 mg/lit or 0.01 ppm of beryllium (20), in the carbonic acid waters of eastern Siberia, 0.06 mg/lit (2), and in the same waters in the Czech massif, up to 0.40 mg/lit. But these figures are scarcely maximal, because even in the waters of the Sea of Japan as a result of supply by thermal springs, 0.…”

Section: Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%