Unmixing of REE-Nb enriched carbonatites after incremental fractionation of alkaline magmas in the Shaxiongdong complex, Central China

Abstract

Carbonatites are often temporally and spatially associated with alkaline silicate rocks. However, petrogenetic models of formation of alkaline‑carbonatite complex and the related rare metal element enrichment processes are still in a matter of debate. In this study, we present detailed petrographic observations and geochemical data for the Shaxiongdong complex, consisting of meta-pyroxenite, syenite, and carbonatite in the South Qinling Belt, Central China. Meta-pyroxenite crops out as a marginal face of the complex and has higher Mg, Fe, Ti, Ca and P contents relative to syenite, consistent with a cumulate of pyroxene, magnetite, ilmenite, titanite and apatite. Syenite is the main central phase of the complex and can cut the meta-pyroxenite as dykes or veins. Both meta-pyroxenite and syenite show various degrees of fenitization, in which the residual syenite looks like breccia cemented by fenite. Carbonatite locally occurs as dykes of dozens of centimeters in width within syenite and meta-pyroxenite and hosts the most Nb and REE of the complex. Nb-rich minerals, e.g., pyrochlore, crystallized coeval with aegirine and apatite in carbonatite, implying a magmatic origin. In contrast, most REE minerals are spatially associated with barite and are interstitial to calcite, implying they were mainly crystallized from residual carbonatite magmas or magmatic-hydrothermal fluids. Carbonatite samples with REE mineralization have oxygen isotopes slightly higher than those of unmineralized and Nb mineralized samples, supporting the involvement of hydrothermal fluids in REE mineralization. UPb dating of titanite and zircon from meta-pyroxenite, syenite and the associated fenite yielded identical ages of ~440 Ma. Carbonatite, syenite, and meta-pyroxenite all have nearly identical SrNd isotopes ((87Sr/86Sr)i: 0.70298 to 0.70367; εNd(t):+3.6 to +4.6), suggesting that all of these rocks were derived from the same mantle source. Fractionation modeling suggests the syenites evolve from a parental alkali basalt magma by separation of cumulate pyroxenite in the complex and finally lead to the unmixing of Nb-REE enriched carbonatites. The subsequent fractionation of carbonatite melts led to Nb and REE mineralization in the Shaxiongdong carbonatite. Niobium minerals formed at early magmatic stage, while most REE minerals likely crystallized from the late magma residuals or precipitated from magmatic-hydrothermal fluids. This genetic model can be widely applicable to other alkaline‑carbonatite complexes and provides a reasonable explanation for extreme enrichment of rare metals in such rocks.