Comment on: Baddeleyite U-Pb age and Hf isotopes, and constraints on genesis of the Panzhihua carbonatite in SW China by Wang et al. (2023)

Abstract

Wang et al. (2023) propose that rocks adjacent to the Panzhihua intrusion are not marbles and skarns, but carbonatites. If true, this interpretation could have important implications for models explaining the origin of the large Fe-Ti ore deposits in the intrusion. We reject this interpretation for two principal reasons: 1) the objects described as “mantle xenoliths”, and considered, incorrectly, as diagnostic of carbonatite, are in fact deformed and altered mafic/ultramafic intrusions; 2) the concentrations of incompatible trace elements in the marbles are low and typical of metasedimentary rocks, not carbonatite.