Baishawo Be‐Nb‐Ta deposits, Pingjiang Co., Yueyang, Hunan, Chinai

Regional Level Types
Baishawo Be‐Nb‐Ta deposits	Mine
Pingjiang Co.	County
Yueyang	Prefecture-level City
Hunan	Province
China	Country

Reserves: 16160 t BeO @ 0.084 %, 11280 t Li2O @ 0.85 %, 3450 t (Ta2O5 + Nb2O5) @ 0.201 %

Rare‐metal deposit has been discovered to be associated with the Mufushan composite granite. A series of N-, SE-, NE-striking fault groups and NE-striking ductile shear zones cut the metasedimentary rocks and control the development of pegmatite dikes in the district. Two-mica granites, granitic pegmatite, granitic aplite and granite porphyry are common in the Baishawo deposit. Additionally, zoned rare metal pegmatites containing economic minerals such as beryl, spodumene, and coltan are present.

The granitic pegmatite in the Baishawo deposit is categorized as RMG-type (Residual melts of granite magmatism, according to the Wise et al. 2022 classification). Beryllium mineralization is largely hosted by the 3# pegmatite dike. This dike is 10–20 m wide and 200 m long, oriented in a SW–NW direction, and exhibits internal zoning comprising a border zone, wall zone, intermediate zone, and core from the outermost to the innermost regions. The border zone primarily contains muscovite, albite, quartz, and garnet, and is a transitional zone between the pegmatite and the two-mica granite. The wall zone is mainly composed of tourmaline with a unidirectional solidification texture (UST), coarse-grained albite, and muscovite. The intermediate zone is characterized by large quartz crystals intergrown with massive albite, and contains few xenoliths of granite porphyry. The core is primarily made up of massive quartz. From the wall zone to the core, the variety of minerals gradually decreases, but the grain size gradually increases. The ARHR beryl is primarily located in the wall and intermediate zones.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References