Formation and Comparison of Rare Earth Element (REE) Geochemistry of Malatya Fluorite Deposits

Abstract

The fluorite deposits in Malatya (Turkey) region are observed in Yeşilyurt and Kuluncak districts. Yesilyurt fluorites are observed as vein type along the plane of unconformity between metamorphic rocks on hydrothermal phase. Kuluncak fluorites are observed in the contacts of alkaline syenites and marbles as vein type which the mineralization occured in the pegmatitic phase as shown on Tb/La-Tb/Ca diagram. Yeşilyurt fluorites are seen in purple, dark purple and blackish colors and Kuluncak is blue to purple. When the geochemical characteristics of the Malatya fluorites are taken into comparison, the Yeşilyurt region has 12.2-35.8% F values and Kuluncak has 15, 03-25, 42%. The REE contents of Kuluncak fluorites are richer than Yeşilyurt fluorites as well as in Sr contents. In the (La/Yb)N-(Tb/Yb)N diagram the Yeşilyurt fall into the field of New Mexico, however the Kuluncak fluorites fall into the field of Akdağmadeni. The fluorite deposites are compared on (Eu/Eu*)n–(La/Yb)n and Sc–ΣREE, (Tb/Yb)n–(La/Yb)n diagrams. The Yeşilyurt fluorites display a distribution similar to the Buyukkizilcik (Kahramanmaras) fluorites but Kuluncak fluorites spread in large areas. The normalized-REE compositions of the Malatya fluorites exhibit enrichment in LREEs compared to the HREEs. In addition the formation and geochemical features of Malatya fluorites differ from each other.