Metasomatic High Field Strength Element, Tin, and Base Metal Enrichment Processes in Lithium Pegmatites from Southeast Ireland

Abstract

Abstract Compared to average crustal abundances, high field strength elements (HFSEs) including Zr, Nb, Hf, Ta, and U are commonly enriched in rare element pegmatites. Albite-spodumene pegmatites may show economic grades of these elements, along with Sn, primarily in oxide minerals. Processes leading to enrichment and precipitation of HFSEs in these rocks are not well understood. Here, we characterize the textures and geochemistry of minerals of HFSEs, tin, and base metals in the Leinster albite-spodumene pegmatites. We use these data to infer processes for enrichment and precipitation of these metals during pegmatite crystallization, especially subsolidus processes. The Leinster albite-spodumene pegmatites are located within the East Carlow deformation zone on the eastern flank of the Caledonian S-type Leinster batholith, southeast Ireland. The final crystallization stages of these pegmatites are characterized by autometasomatism and hydrothermal overprint leading to in situ greisenization and precipitation of massive, commonly replacive, albitites. Cassiterite and HFSE minerals (columbite-tantalite and zircon) crystallized predominantly during these late stages. Crystals of HFSE minerals that precipitated during the early magmatic stages commonly exhibit evidence of resorption and additional growth during later stages. Others, such as microlite and uraninite, only crystallized during metasomatism or from hydrothermal fluids. Base metal sulfides are among the last precipitates from these fluids. We present a detailed paragenetic sequence for the Leinster albite-spodumene pegmatites and show that late-stage aqueous fluids transported HFSEs, especially after all the melt had crystallized. Tantalum enrichment seems to have been controlled by processes affecting the entire crystallizing medium, as opposed to fractional crystallization of columbite-tantalite. The textures and parageneses described in the present and our previous work are well explained by element partitioning between coexisting liquids with characteristics similar to those described in published melt-melt-fluid immiscibility models for rare element pegmatites but do not exclude other models for early-stage pegmatite evolution. The chemical and textural features of columbite-tantalite and cassiterite in the Leinster albite-spodumene pegmatites are seen in similar rare element pegmatites and rare metal granites elsewhere, suggesting wide applicability of the processes interpreted for Leinster. Late-stage processes of the type that affected the lithium pegmatites at Leinster may either enhance or reduce economic potential: ore metal tenor may be increased because late-stage columbite-tantalite is generally richer in Ta, and/or ore metals may be lost from pegmatites to country rocks. Lithium pegmatites, including the ones at Leinster, are commonly associated spatially with Sn-W veins and greisens and share some geochemical and textural features, such as evidence of widespread albitization. We propose that lithium pegmatites are transitional products regarding the interrelated dimensions time, temperature, and depth in S-type granite-related Li-Sn-W mineralizing systems.