Original paper

Columbite-tantalite minerals from Nanping granitic pegmatites, South China: compositional trends and genetic implications

Yang, Zhuming; Song, Renkui; Tao, Kejie; Zhang, Peishan

Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie - Monatshefte Jg. 2003 Heft 8 (2003), p. 363 - 373

16 references

published: Aug 1, 2003

DOI: 10.1127/0028-3649/2003/2003-0363

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Abstract

The No31 pegmatite group is the largest pegmatite cluster of the Nanping pegmatite field and represents one of the most important Ta–Nb deposits in China. The columbite–tantalite occurring in No31 pegmatites showed faint oscillatory zonation and complex patchy zonation patterns in back-scattered electron images. Microprobe analyses revealed that columbite–tantalite in the pegmatites has a wide range of composition. Neither Mn/(Mn+Fe) nor Ta/(Ta+Nb) atomic ratio has obvious trend of compositional variation along the profile of a single pegmatite dike. However, in the quadrilateral diagrams the compositional trend in columbite–tantalite varies from ferrocolumbite to tantocolumbite, then to manganotantalite. The features of zonation and composition in columbite–tantalite imply that the formation of Nanping pegmatites underwent original differentiation stage and later metasomatism stage.

Keywords

columbite-tantalitezonation patternchemical compositioncompositionaltrend