Specialisation of rare earth deposits according to the elemental composition of their ores
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17308/geology/1609-0691/2023/2/57-72Keywords:
rare earth elements, praseodymium, neodymium, heavy lanthanides, metallogenic types of deposits, specialization of depositsAbstract
Introduction: The scale of the use of rare earth elements (REE) by industry in the 21st century increases at a high rate. However, the demand for individual rare earth elements increases unevenly: for some elements, the increase in demand is very high, for others it is less significant or absent. Due to disproportions between the capabilities of the currently used resource base and the consumption of individual REE, prices for scarce praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd) and heavy lanthanides (LnY) are 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than for other rare earth elements. The importance of these elements for both traditional and innovative sectors of modern industry makes them not just scarce, but critical. Therefore, exploration companies around the world consider the discovery of deposits with an increased proportion of deficient REE as a big bonus. At the same time, at the initial stage, work is often carried out without a preliminary strategy, since in the scientific and methodological literature, there are no empirically substantiated data on possible variations in the fluctuations in the ratios between scarce and non-deficient REE in deposits of different types. Our study aims to correct such situation. Data and analysis methodology: Data on the distribution of REE in ores from 127 REE deposits from all over the world have been collected and compared for the first time. The deposits represent nine metallogenic types that have attracted interest from exploration or mining companies in recent decades. Results and Discussion: Possible ranges of values were established for the relative shares (%) of deficient REE groups (Pr+Nd min–max/mean; LnY min–max/mean) in ores of deposits of the following metallogenic types: carbonatite (11.2–35.0/19.4; 0.4–7.6/2.2), hypergene in carbonatites (15.2–28.9/21.4; 0.6– 7.7/3.4), foid (14.0–25.6 /18.1; 1.2–17.6/8.1), syenite (16.1–20.9/18.9; 3.1–16.3/8.7), alkaline granite (0.2–20.7/11.5; 7.8–34.0/21.7), subalkaline granite (13.5–23.4/17.7; 0.1– 13.3/3.5), ion-adsorption (4.2– 36.8/22.3; 4.5–34.2/16.3), alluvial (18.8–25.3/21.7; 1.6–11.9/5.4), and intrafault (4.6–10.5/7.6; 19.7– 28.2/23.9). For some types of deposits, mineralogical or geological features that affect the increase in the proportion of deficient REE in ores have been established. Conclusions: The obtained data quantitatively mark the boundaries of specialization of different types of REE deposits for the most popular REE groups. Such information enables specialists to more purposefully carry out regional forecasting and early-stage exploration for the identification of deposits with the desired ratio of different REE groups.
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