Tourmalinite from northern Guangxi, China

Abstract

The extensive development of tourmalinite is a feature that distinguishes the northern Guangxi polymetallic tin province of China from similar metallogenic provinces elsewhere. Two types of tourmalinite occur in the province. The first type, in the lower part of the Early Proterozoic Sibao Group, is bedded, stratiform or lenticular tourmalinite that shows well-developed laminated, gel, and degelatinized structures. Its mineral assemblage is very simple and the grain size ranges from 2 to 8 μm. This tourmaline is relatively rich in Mg, with an Fe/(Fe + Mg) ratio of 0.25–0.50. The second type of tourmalinite occurs as lodes distributed in the exocontact zone of Late Proterozoic biotite-granite intrusions. Its mineral assemblage is relatively complex; the tourmaline is present as euhedral or subhedral crystals ranging from 0.1 to 3.5 mm, mostly from 0.5 to 1 mm. This tourmaline commonly exhibits a radiating, zoned structure with Fe/(Fe + Mg) ratios of 0.64–0.79. It is suggested that the bedded tourmalinite formed by exhalation in an Early Proterozoic spreading-ridge environment, whereas the vein tourmalinite formed in a plate-convergence setting genetically associated with emplacement of Late Proterozoic biotite granite. As the tourmalinites themselves are related to mineralized rocks and orebodies, their origin and the related boron cycle of the region reflect to some extent the formation and evolution of the associated polymetallic tin deposits of the region.