Abstract
The Xianghualing skarn Sn deposit in the southwestern part of the southern Hunan Metallogenic Belt is a large Sn deposit in the Nanling area. In this paper, the garnet has been analyzed by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to obtain the concentrations of the major and trace elements. The results reveal that the garnets from the Xianghualing deposit mainly belong to andradite-grossular (grandite) solid solution and are typically richer in Al than in Fe. They show enrichment in heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) and notably lower light rare earth elements (LREEs), and commonly negative Eu anomalies, indicative of a relatively reduced formation environment. The garnets have high Sn concentrations between 2313 ppm and 5766 ppm. It is also evident that there is a positive correlation between Sn and Fe, suggesting that Sn4+ substitutes into the garnets through substituting for Fe3+ in the octahedral position. Combined with previous studies, it can be recognized that the Sn concentrations of garnet in skarn Sn deposits are generally high, whereas the W concentrations are relatively low. This is just the opposite in garnets from skarn W deposits that typically have high W, but low Sn concentrations. In polymetallic skarn deposits with both economic Sn and W, the concentrations of both metals in garnets are relatively high, although varying greatly. Therefore, the Sn and W concentrations in garnets can be used to evaluate a skarn deposit’s potential to produce Sn and (or) W mineralization, which is helpful in exploration.
Highlights
The Xianghualing skarn Sn deposit is an important skarn deposit in the center of the NanlingRange, which is situated in the northern part of Linwu County, southern Hunan Province
This paper reports the major and trace elements of the garnets from the Xianghualing skarn Sn deposit, which provide insights into the formation conditions of garnets and the substitution mechanisms of Sn into garnets
Xianghualing skarn Sn deposit are summarized in Table
Summary
Range, which is situated in the northern part of Linwu County, southern Hunan Province. Minerals 2020, 10, 456 potential by geochemical studies on Sn-bearing magmatic minerals (e.g., titanite) in the Xianghualing granite [9,10,11], but to date relatively little attention has been paid to skarn minerals. Garnet is one of the most common minerals in skarn deposits [12,13,14,15] and is a Sn-rich mineral [16,17]. The contents of some metal elements (e.g., Sn, W, and Mo) in garnet can indicate their abundances in the original hydrothermal fluids, which, in turn, can be used in evaluating the potential of economic mineralization of these metals [23,24,25,26,27]
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