Germanium occurrence in Lincang superlarge deposit in Yunnan, China

Abstract

A heavy-media separation has brcu carried out to study the partition of germanium in various macetals ol mineralized lignites in Lincang superlarge gerrtlilnium deposit in Yunniln, China. The result shows that Ge stays predominantly in huminites, especially in corpohuminitrs (86.04–89.16%), next in light macerals and minerals (3.20%–8.33% and 1.71%–10.27%, respectively). In addition, the EPMA and PIXE analyses suggest that no germanium minerals have been detected and Ge is well distributed in the whole mineralized lignite, bonding to O, C and H of coaly organic matter of mineralized lignites.