Central and west african rare-Metal granitic pegmatites, related aplites, quartz veins and mineral deposits

Abstract

The author summarises the results of his studies of Central and West African rare-metal pegmatites and supplements them by the newest datas obtained by H. Adam in Ivory Coast. He compares then the classification of African rare-metal pegmatites with the classifications obtained in U.S.S.R., in U.S.A. and in Canada for the same kind of pegmatites. The author's conclusions may be summarised as follows: (a) The rare-metal pegmatite types succeed each other in a more or less defined order which is independent from the ages of the orogenies as well as from the nature and from the degree of metamorphism of enclosing rocks. (b) The spatial distribution of the rare-metal pegmatite types in or around the granitic intrusions depends from the depth at which the parent granites are crystallizing. — When the granites are crystallizing at relatively shallow depths, the rare-metal pegmatites and partially the quartz veins and the associated mineralizations are located in the granitic bodies them selves. When the granites are crystallizing at more and more greather depths, the rare-metal pegmatites, the quartz veins and the associated mineralizations as well as the secondary phenomena such as albitization and greisenization are no more restricted to the granitic intrusions, but with the increasing depth of their crystallization are more and more penetrating in the roofs of the granitic cupolas. In addition it must be underlined that in granites crystallizing at shallow depths, the dimensions of the individual pegmatites are small and have no economic value; the rare-metal pegmatites associated with granitic intrusions cyrstallizing at greather depths may reach gigantic dimensions and certain types may be mined for tin, niobium, tantalum, beryl and lithium minerals; (c) In the same metallogenic province may co-exist granitic intrusions having crystallized at diffrent depths or at diffrent geological ages. To each depth of crystallization of the granitic intrusions corresponds a specific spatial distribution pattern of rare-metal pegmatites characterized by the distance of different pegmatite types to the granitic contacts as well as by the dimensions of the pegmatite types and by the size of their minerals. This may outline a special zonation within a metallogenic province. — At the end of the paper, the author gives a comparison of Central and West African rare-metal pegmatite type classification with similar classifications obtained in U.S.S.R., in U.S.A. and in Canada. From this comparison it results that the evolution of the pegmatitic process remains the same throughout geological epochs and is independent of the nature of the enclosing rocks. The magnitude and the fullness of this process are depending from the depth of crystallization of the granitic intrusions.