On “Birthmarks” in rare-metal granites of the Losevka pluton, northern Kazakhstan

Abstract

The Losevka pluton of rare-metal albite granite, which was explored as a possible source of columbite-zircon-malacon ore, is composed of quartz, sodic plagioclase, potassium feldspar, annite, protolithionite, lepidomelane, and Li-muscovite. The average chemical composition of this rock is as follows, wt %: 74.14 SiO2, 0.04 TiO2, 14.07 Al2O3, 1.05 Fe2O3, 0.78 FeO, 0.15 MnO, 0.09 MgO, 0.47 CaO, 4.65 Na2O, 4.11 K2O, and 0.03 P2O5. The accessory minerals are zircon, malacon, and cyrtolite (874 ppm); apatite (18 ppm); ilmenite (114 ppm); xenotime and monazite (119 ppm); and Nb-columbite (463 ppm). The black inclusions up to 15 cm in size, which are observed in this granite and called “birthmarks” by local geologists, consist of the same rock-forming minerals as the surrounding granite, but are enriched in MnO, MgO, CaO, TiO2, and F and depleted in SiO2 relative to the light granite. The black granite is also distinguished by much higher Sr and Ba contents and lower La, Rb, Y, Nb, REE, Cs, Ta, Th, and U contents. The black color is caused by enrichment in manganese oxides, manganoilmenite, and Mn-annite. All rock-forming minerals are pervaded by thin veinlets of Mn-oxides. In addition, bastnaesite, Y-and Th-fluorides, zircon, and malacon have been identified. Aggregates of black-colored minerals are not the products of the fractionation of the initial magma or immiscibility effects, because the structure of the albite-potassium feldspar-quartz-mica matrix is the same both in black and light granites. The percolation of a deep-sourced fluid enriched in Mn and F into a granitic melt might be a more probable origin.