Proterozoic Metamorphic Rock-Hosted ZR, Y, and HREE Mineralization in the Dabie Mountain Area, Central China

Abstract

Zr, Y, and heavy rare earth element (HREE) mineralization hosted by late Proterozoic metamorphic rocks from the western Dabie Mountains, northern Hubei Province, central China was discovered in 1978 by the Hubei Regional Geological Party (Li et al., 1981) and is examined further in this paper. The area is located in the EW-trending fold belt between the Sino-Korean and Yangtze cratons. Highly metamorphosed hornblende-plagioclase gneiss, granitic gneiss, and migmatites of the late Archean Dabie Group constitute the basement, which is unconformably covered by the late Proterozoic Hongan Group—a sequence of phosphorus-bearing layer(s), dolomitic marbles, muscovite-albite schist, felsic schists, and a variety of greenschists. The stratiform Zr, Y, and HREE mineralization is hosted by felsic and albite-muscovite schists of the lower part of the Hongan Group, which was highly stressed and deformed. The mineralized layer, about 10 m in thickness, occurs concordantly in the strata and extends discontinuously more...