世界最大のレアアース鉱床－中国バヤンオボ鉱床－の成因をめぐって

抄録

Recent geoscientific data and models for ore geneses of the Bayan Obo REE-Nb-Fe deposits, Inner Mongolia, China were reviewed. The rift system developed in the northern margin of the Sino-Korean massif during the Early-Middle Proterozoic era made a favorite tectonic setting for the depositions of Bayan Obo Group and the ore deposits. A variety of veins and dykes around the deposits occur in the footwall clastic rocks and the basement of migmatites. K-metasomatism and brecciation of hanging H9 shale indicate that the shale could serve as a sealing cap-rock for the deposits (DREW et al., 1992). Data of isotope ages from Sm-Nd, La-Ba, Rb-Sr, Th-Pb, Ar-Ar, and Re-Os methods suggest that there are at least three metallogenic periods: (1) 1, 700 - 1, 260 Ma (Middle Proterozoic); (2) 555 - 370 Ma (Caledonian); and (3) 343 - 298 Ma (Hercynian). In the three periods the first one is of the most important (BAI et al., 1996). C, O and S isotopic compositions together with mineral chemistry and field observations of the H8 dolostone and ore minerals indicate the following possibilities: (1) The dolostone belongs to normal sedimentary carbonate rocks and is not a magmatic carbonatite. (2) The original iron (hematite) ore bodies were formed syngenetically before REE-Nb mineralization. (3) The hydrothermal fluids with an alkaline-carbonatite chemistry were derived from the upper mantle, and printed the REE-Nb mineralization over the original iron bodies. The process of the above (2) and (3) is considered as a composite process of both crustal and mantle source mineralization (CAO et al., 1995). Many geochemical data and field observations are consistent with the composite model for the origins of the Bayan Obo deposit.