Spatial‐Temporal Distribution, Geological Characteristics and Ore‐Formation Controlling Factors of Major Types of Rare Metal Mineral Deposits in China

Abstract

Rare metals including Lithium (Li), Beryllium (Be), Rubidium (Rb), Cesium (Cs), Zirconium (Zr), Hafnium (Hf), Niobium (Nb), Tantalum (Ta), Tungsten (W) and Tin (Sn) are important critical mineral resources. In China, rare metal mineral deposits are spatially distributed mainly in the Altay and Southern Great Xingán Range regions in the Central Asian orogenic belt; in the Middle Qilian, South Qinling and East Qinling mountains regions in the Qilian–Qinling–Dabie orogenic belt; in the Western Sichuan and Bailongshan–Dahongliutan regions in the Kunlun–Songpan–Garze orogenic belt, and in the Northeastern Jiangxi, Northwestern Jiangxi, and Southern Hunan regions in South China. Major ore‐forming epochs include Indosinian (mostly 200–240 Ma, in particular in western China) and the Yanshanian (mostly 120–160 Ma, in particular in South China). In addition, Bayan Obo, Inner Mongolia, northeastern China, with a complex formation history, hosts the largest REE and Nb deposits in China. There are six major rare metal mineral deposit types in China: Highly fractionated granite; Pegmatite; Alkaline granite; Carbonatite and alkaline rock; Volcanic; and Hydrothermal types. Two further types, namely the Leptynite type and Breccia pipe type, have recently been discovered in China, and are represented by the Yushishan Nb–Ta– (Zr–Hf–REE) and the Weilasituo Li–Rb–Sn–W–Zn–Pb deposits. Several most important controlling factors for rare metal mineral deposits are discussed, including geochemical behaviors and sources of the rare metals, highly evolved magmatic fractionation, and structural controls such as the metamorphic core complex setting, with a revised conceptual model for the latter.

Spatio-temporal Evolution and Drivers of High-quality Utilization of Urban Land in Chinese Cities

“…Wang et al pointed out that geodetector is a Spatial analysis model used to study the relationship between a certain geographic attribute and its explanatory factors, to detect the spatial differentiation of the research object, and to reveal its driving force [34,35]. The method is widely used in studying driving mechanisms of natural economic and social phenomena [36][37][38]. Compared to other methods, geodetector have a clear advantage in dealing with mixed types of data and can still be useful when constrained by fewer prerequisites.…”

A Recently Discovered Trachyte-Hosted Rare Earth Element-Niobium-Zirconium Occurrence in Northern Maine, Usa

“…Numerous unmined REE-Nb-Zr deposits in the south Qinling orogenic belt of Central China are hosted in trachyte intrusions of Permian and Triassic age (Jiang et al, 2020;Yin and Song, 2022). The Tudiling deposit, apparently the largest, comprises 122.5 Mt at low grades averaging 0.17% ZrO 2, 0.08 % Nb2O5, 0.03 % ΣREE oxides, and 0.005 % Ta2O5 (Xiong et al, 2018;Yan et al, 2021).…”

A New Type of Rare Metal Deposit: The Yushishan Leptynite‐Type Nb‐Ta Deposit in Eastern Altun, Gansu Province, NW China

“…The initial rare metal enrichment occurred during the Neoproterozoic volcanic rocks in the Yushishan deposit, but the industry orebodies were formed far after the primary Neoproterozoic volcanism stage but at early Paleozoic during strong magmatism, metamorphism and deformation. Therefore, we propose that this deposit may represent a new type Nb-Ta deposit, and we term it leptynite type (Jiang et al, 2020).…”

“…Niobium and tantalum (Nb-Ta) are strategic critical metals, which are widely used in modern industry, new energy, information technology, aeronautics and astronautics, electronics, atomic energy and defense fields. There are mainly four types of Nb-Ta deposits (Pollard, 1986;Wang et al, 2012;Jiang et al, 2020): (1) carbonatite related Nb-REE deposits, such as the dominant Nb with REE-Fe mineralization (e.g., the Bayan Obo deposit, or Nb with REE mineralization in south Qinling (Xu et al, 2015;Ying et al, 2017Ying et al, , 2022; (2) alkaline rock related Nb-Ta deposits, including intrusive rock and volcanic rock related, the former contains alkaline granite type (e.g., the Baerzhe Zr-Nb-Be-REE deposit, Su et al, 2021, Wu et al, 2021 and the syenite type (e.g., the Saima Nb deposit, Ju et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2019); (3) highlyfractionated granite related, such as the Yichun Nb-Ta-Li deposit (Lin et al, 1995;Belkasmi et al, 2000;Li et al, 2016;Wu et al, 2018;Jiang et al, 2020) and the Limu Ta-Nb-Sn-W deposit (Zhu et al, 2001;Huang et al, 2020); (4) pegmatite related Ta or Nb-Ta deposits, including both LCT and NYF subtypes (Černý, 1991;Kendall-Langley, 2019;Jiang et al, 2020), but in China, most are LCT-type, such as the Keketuohai pegmatite Ta deposit in Xinjiang (Zou and Li, 2006), the Nanping pegmatite Nb-Ta deposit in Fujian (Chen, 2014), and Renli pegmatite Nb-Ta deposit in Hunan (Liu et al, 2018;Xiong et al, 2020). Both the alkaline granite and syenite usually contain enrichment of Zr, Nb, U and REE，while relatively depletion in Ta.…”