The Genesis of Regolith-Hosted Heavy Rare Earth Element Deposits: Insights from the World-Class Zudong Deposit in Jiangxi Province, South China

Li, Martin Yan Hei; Zhou, Mei‐Fu; Williams‐Jones, Anthony E.

doi:10.5382/econgeo.4642

Cited by 99 publications

(67 citation statements)

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“…Yttrofluorite, 8 their respective roles in adsorbing and fractionating REE within lateritic weathering profiles have been highlighted in numerous recent studies, for example, refs. 12,16,[55][56][57][58] . In addition to physicochemical and microstructural properties, such as particle size, morphology, crystallinity, composition and purity 36,50,55 , the cation adsorption capacity of kaolinite and halloysite strongly depends on the pH and ionic strength of the weathering solutions in which they occur 52,56 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Weathering profiles developed on protoliths with a primary enrichment in the mid and HREEs, such as peralkaline igneous rocks, have become a key target for exploration 16,17 . Many prospective weathering profiles, some of which are HREE enriched, have recently been studied outside China, including in Malawi, Madagascar, USA, Brazil, the Philippines, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] (Fig.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Adsorption of rare earth elements in regolith-hosted clay deposits

et al. 2020

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Global resources of heavy Rare Earth Elements (REE) are dominantly sourced from Chinese regolith-hosted ion-adsorption deposits in which the REE are inferred to be weakly adsorbed onto clay minerals. Similar deposits elsewhere might provide alternative supply for these high-tech metals, but the adsorption mechanisms remain unclear and the adsorbed state of REE to clays has never been demonstrated in situ. This study compares the mineralogy and speciation of REE in economic weathering profiles from China to prospective regoliths developed on peralkaline rocks from Madagascar. We use synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy to study the distribution and local bonding environment of Y and Nd, as proxies for heavy and light REE, in the deposits. Our results show that REE are truly adsorbed as easily leachable 8-to 9-coordinated outer-sphere hydrated complexes, dominantly onto kaolinite. Hence, at the atomic level, the Malagasy clays are genuine mineralogical analogues to those currently exploited in China.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adsorption of rare earth elements in regolith-hosted clay deposits

et al. 2020

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“…The estimated modal contents of xenotime and monazite and their ETR contents in the sodic aplite of the BPP, agree with whole-rock total REE contents around 100 ppm and confirm the analyses by Da Silva (1993). These values are lower but in the same order of magnitude of the data of the source intrusion of the Zudong deposit, between 300 an 500 ppm (Li et al 2019). For comparison in Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 49%

“…The REE concentrations are far below the mining grade for hard-rock exploitation. There is however a good chance of secondary REE deposits as: a) alluvial placer deposits rich in xenotime as those reported by Sengupta & van Gosen (2015) from some Southeast-Asian countries; and b) ion-adsorption (or regolith) type deposits as reported by Voncken (2016) and Li et al (2019) from China. Both deposit types could be expected within or close to the extent of the BPP.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…The chondrite normalized data are included in Fig. 7, for comparison with the whole-rock data from the source-rocks in a REL -pegmatite field in Canada by Černý et al (2005) and of the source-rock of the regolith-type deposit of Zudong (formerly known as ion-adsorption type) in China by Li et al (2019). The estimated modal contents of xenotime and monazite and their ETR contents in the sodic aplite of the BPP, agree with whole-rock total REE contents around 100 ppm and confirm the analyses by Da Silva (1993).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation of the Potential for Rare Earth Element (Ree) Deposits Related to the Borborema Pegmatite Province in Northeastern Brazil.

Beurlen¹,

Rhede

Thomas

et al. 2020

Est. Geol.

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Electron probe microanalyses (EPMA) of rare earth elements (REE) in xenotime, monazite, zircon, thorite and uraninite from different facies of pegmatitic granites supposed to be parental to complex rare element (REL) pegmatites of the Borborema Province (BPP) in Northeastern Brazil indicated monazite and xenotime as most common heavy accessory phases with significant enrichment in these elements. Averages of Nd and Eu in monazite are respectively 13.06 and 0.54 wt. % oxide and mean contents of Dy, Yb, Gd, and Er (respectively 4.77, 3.39, 3.15 and 3.86 wt. % oxide) are found in xenotime. The other common accessory minerals like zircon, thorite, uraninite showed no significant enrichment in REE. Low xenotime and monazite contents in pegmatitic granites and their irregular distribution and reserves in pegmatites, turn the extraction directly from the hard rock impracticable. The REE-enriched minerals could however be enriched in and easily extracted from alluvial placers within the province. Ion adsorption REE enrichment could hypothetically form in parental granites of the pegmatites at the intersection with paleogeomorphologic plateaus culminated by the early Cenozoic siliciclastic Serra dos Martins Formation, because at this unconformity it is possible to observe an intensive kaolinization of the basement and lateritization of the covering sediments.

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