Two metasomatic events recorded in apatite from the ore-hosting dolomite marble and implications for genesis of the giant Bayan Obo REE deposit, Inner Mongolia, Northern China

Hu, Le; Li, Yike; Wu, Zhongjian; Bai, Yang; Wang, Anjian

doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2018.08.022

Cited by 24 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Song et al [27] found that in situ Th-Pb ages for monazite from the deposit range from 361Ma to 913 Ma and interpreted these ages as results of subsequent thermal perturbations. In addition, in situ analysis of other minerals indicate that the deposit underwent significant modification events after its formation, as evidenced by the addition of radiogenic Sr and Pb in dolomite and apatite [26,27] and abrupt changes in apatite compositions [44,54]. In this study, the presence of the Type 3 apatite in the dyke directly proves the occurrence of such a distinct hydrothermal activity in the Bayan Obo area.…”

Section: Implication For the Formation Of The Bayan Obo Depositsupporting

confidence: 53%

“…Similarly, in the Bayan Obo ore district, dolomite grains from the Dol-dyke and ore-hosting dolomites contain low REE contents, indicating that early crystalized dolomite minerals consume little REE during carbonatitic melt evolution. Petrographic studies on the Dol-dyke in this study and ore-hosting dolomites in previous studies [25,44] reveal that REE-bearing minerals mainly occurred along dolomite grain boundaries or as late-stage veins in the dolomite rocks, implying that REE mineralization occurred later than the formation of dolomite minerals and was controlled by hydrothermal fluids. Therefore, it is highly possible that fluids derived from the evolved carbonatitic magmas controlled the REE mineralization of the deposit.…”

Section: Implication For the Formation Of The Bayan Obo Depositsupporting

confidence: 52%

“…In this study, the three types of apatite exhibit distinctly different REE and Sr contents. As shown in Figure 9, Type 1 apatite has LREE 2 O 3 contents comparable to primary apatite in other Dol-dykes [44] from the Bayan Obo ore district. BSE and CL images of Type 1 display no reaction textures, indicating that it was not affected or was little affected by post-crystallization alteration.…”

Section: Formation Of the Three Types Of Apatitementioning

confidence: 70%

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Post-Magmatic Fluids Dominate the Mineralization of Dolomite Carbonatitic Dykes Next to the Giant Bayan Obo REE Deposit, Northern China

Chuan

et al. 2020

Minerals

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The Bayan Obo rare earth element (REE) deposit in Inner Mongolia, northern China, is the largest REE deposit in the world, whose mineralization process remains controversial. There are dozens of carbonatite dykes that are tightly related to the deposit. Here we report the petrological and mineralogical characteristics of a typical dolomite carbonatite dyke near the deposit. The dolomite within the dyke experienced intense post-emplacement fluids metasomatism as evidenced by the widespread hydrothermal REE-bearing minerals occurring along the carbonate mineral grains. REE contents of bulk rocks and constituent dolomite minerals (>90 vol.%) are 1407–4184 ppm and 63–152 ppm, respectively, indicating that dolomite is not the dominant mineral controlling the REE budgets of the dyke. There are three types of apatite in the dyke: Type 1 apatite is the primary apatite and contains REE2O3 at 2.35–4.20 wt.% and SrO at 1.75–2.19 wt.%; Type 2 and Type 3 apatites are the products of replacement of primary apatite. The REE2O3 (6.10–8.21 wt.%) and SrO (2.83–3.63 wt.%) contents of Type 2 apatite are significantly elevated for overprinting of REE and Sr-rich fluids derived from the carbonatite. Conversely, Type 3 apatite has decreased REE2O3 (1.17–2.35 wt.%) and SrO (1.51–1.99 wt.%) contents, resulting from infiltration of fluids with low REE and Na concentrations. Our results on the dyke suggest that post-magmatic fluids expelled from the carbonatitic melts dominated the REE mineralization of the Bayan Obo deposit, and a significant fluid disturbance occurred but probably provided no extra REEs to the deposit.

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Section: Implication For the Formation Of The Bayan Obo Depositsupporting

confidence: 53%

Section: Implication For the Formation Of The Bayan Obo Depositsupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Formation Of the Three Types Of Apatitementioning

confidence: 70%

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Post-Magmatic Fluids Dominate the Mineralization of Dolomite Carbonatitic Dykes Next to the Giant Bayan Obo REE Deposit, Northern China

Chuan

et al. 2020

Minerals

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“…The early carbonatitic magma is fertile in REEs, and the REEs are captured in primary REE-minerals such as bastnäsite and monazite. The late hydrothermal fluids released the REEs from its original host minerals, and upgraded the reserves, forming REE minerals such as secondary bastnäsite, parasite and cerianite, which are usually coarse-grained and appear in veins [37][38][39][40].…”

Section: Ore and Orebody Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbonatite-Related REE Deposits: An Overview

et al. 2020

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The rare earth elements (REEs) have unique and diverse properties that make them function as an “industrial vitamin” and thus, many countries consider them as strategically important resources. China, responsible for more than 60% of the world’s REE production, is one of the REE-rich countries in the world. Most REE (especially light rare earth elements (LREE)) deposits are closely related to carbonatite in China. Such a type of deposit may also contain appreciable amounts of industrially critical metals, such as Nb, Th and Sc. According to the genesis, the carbonatite-related REE deposits can be divided into three types: primary magmatic type, hydrothermal type and carbonatite weathering-crust type. This paper provides an overview of the carbonatite-related endogenetic REE deposits, i.e., primary magmatic type and hydrothermal type. The carbonatite-related endogenetic REE deposits are mainly distributed in continental margin depression or rift belts, e.g., Bayan Obo REE-Nb-Fe deposit, and orogenic belts on the margin of craton such as the Miaoya Nb-REE deposit. The genesis of carbonatite-related endogenetic REE deposits is still debated. It is generally believed that the carbonatite magma is originated from the low-degree partial melting of the mantle. During the evolution process, the carbonatite rocks or dykes rich in REE were formed through the immiscibility of carbonate-silicate magma and fractional crystallization of carbonate minerals from carbonatite magma. The ore-forming elements are mainly sourced from primitive mantle, with possible contribution of crustal materials that carry a large amount of REE. In the magmatic-hydrothermal system, REEs migrate in the form of complexes, and precipitate corresponding to changes of temperature, pressure, pH and composition of the fluids. A simple magmatic evolution process cannot ensure massive enrichment of REE to economic values. Fractional crystallization of carbonate minerals and immiscibility of melts and hydrothermal fluids in the hydrothermal evolution stage play an important role in upgrading the REE mineralization. Future work of experimental petrology will be fundamental to understand the partitioning behaviors of REE in magmatic-hydrothermal system through simulation of the metallogenic geological environment. Applying “comparative metallogeny” methods to investigate both REE fertile and barren carbonatites will enhance the understanding of factors controlling the fertility.

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“…Li & Yang, 2016;Smith et al, 2016). For dozens of years, numerous researches have been engaged on ore genesis (Hu et al, 2019;Ren et al, 2019;, occurrences of REEs (Zhang et al, 2015), reagents for beneficiation (Che et al, 2004;Li et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2013), mineral processing (Chen, 2014;Yu & Chen, 1992), tailing recovery (Yu et al, 2012) and so on. However, studies on process mineralogy of Bayan Obo rare earth ore are rarely reported, which restricts the efficient exploitation of the resource.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Process mineralogy of Bayan Obo rare earth ore by MLA

Xu¹,

Chi²,

Zhang³

et al. 2020

Physicochem. Probl. Miner. Process.

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The maximum recovery of rare earth resource from the Bayan Obo ore deposit is a difficult task, especially without the sufficient data of mineralogy. In this paper the mineralogy of Bayan Obo ore deposit by comprehensively research with the application of mineral liberation analyzer (MLA) is reported. The MLA was applied to quantitatively analyze the complicated element/mineral compositions, the REE occurrence, the size distribution and the degree of liberation of the Bayan Obo ore. Mineralogical analysis of the rare earth ore has shown that REEs are present mainly as bastnaesite and monazite-(Ce) to a small extent as parisite-(Ce). 5.85% of the REEs, 34.99% of iron and 0.12% of niobium occur in the ore sample. There are 76.99% of iron occurred in hematite and the remaining iron is mainly distributed in magnetite and goethite. The degree of liberation of bastnaesite and monazite-(Ce) was 79.65% and 75.67% respectively when the grinding fineness was 83.57% passing 75 µm sieves. Un-liberated or partly liberated rare earth minerals are associated closely mainly with other rare earth minerals and gangues. These theoretical data could be employed to further comprehensively utilize the rare earth ore.

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Two metasomatic events recorded in apatite from the ore-hosting dolomite marble and implications for genesis of the giant Bayan Obo REE deposit, Inner Mongolia, Northern China

Cited by 24 publications

References 48 publications

Post-Magmatic Fluids Dominate the Mineralization of Dolomite Carbonatitic Dykes Next to the Giant Bayan Obo REE Deposit, Northern China

Post-Magmatic Fluids Dominate the Mineralization of Dolomite Carbonatitic Dykes Next to the Giant Bayan Obo REE Deposit, Northern China

Carbonatite-Related REE Deposits: An Overview

Process mineralogy of Bayan Obo rare earth ore by MLA

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