JIANG Shaoyong
State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, Collaborative Innovation Center for Exploration of Strategic Mineral Resources, School of Earth Resource, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, ChinaLIU Tao
State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, Collaborative Innovation Center for Exploration of Strategic Mineral Resources, School of Earth Resource, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, ChinaZHANG Haoxiang
State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, Collaborative Innovation Center for Exploration of Strategic Mineral Resources, School of Earth Resource, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, ChinaCAO Shuyun
School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, ChinaZHENG Ruohong
State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, Collaborative Innovation Center for Exploration of Strategic Mineral Resources, School of Earth Resource, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, ChinaLI Tongguo
Geological Survey of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730020, ChinaYU Junpeng
Geological Survey of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730020, ChinaWU Yibu
Geological Survey of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730020, ChinaThis work was financially supported by projects from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42030811), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFC0602405), and the MOST Special Fund from the State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences (No. MSFGPMR03-2). We are grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve this paper.
The Yusishan deposit is a newly found leptynite-type niobium and tantalum (Nb-Ta) deposit, which is located in the Eastern Altun of Gansu Province. The leptynite of the Neoproterozoic Aoyougou Formation occurs more than 10 km long and 3 km wide. In this paper, we carried out a detailed study of the leptynite and related mineralization. The U-Pb dating of zircon reveals ages of 831 ± 5 Ma and 790 ± 5 Ma for the unmineralized leptynite and 491 ± 4 Ma and 455 ± 4 Ma for the mineralized leptynite. The petrographic and geochemical evidence identified the protolith of the leptynite as alkaline volcanic rocks that erupted during Neoproterozoic at ca. 830 Ma. At ca. 490 Ma, the tectono-magmatic and metamorphic event triggered remobilization and enrichment of Nb-Ta as well as other critical metals (REE, Zr, Hf etc) with the formation of industry orebodies in the leptynite strata. The Yushishan deposit presents many similarities with the alkaline volcanic rocks related rare metal deposits in the south Qinling of China and the Brochman, Toogni and Southern Peak Range deposits in Australian. We therefore propose that the Yushishan deposit is a new type (sub-type) of Nb-Ta deposit and termed as leptynite type that represents the metamorphic counterpart of the alkaline volcanic rocks related rare metal deposits.
JIANG Shaoyong, LIU Tao, ZHANG Haoxiang, CAO Shuyun, ZHENG Ruohong, LI Tongguo, YU Junpeng, WU Yibu.2022. A New Type of Rare Metal Deposit: The Yushishan Leptynite-Type Nb-Ta Deposit in Eastern Altun, Gansu Province, NW China[J]. Acta Geologica Sinica(),96(5):1471-1483
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