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Noble Metals, U, Pb and HREE Bearing Baddeleyite from Placer Sands of Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu, India

Received: 10 September 2013     Published: 20 March 2014
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Abstract

Heavy mineral placer sands were collected from Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu. A broken piece of a euhedral grain of dark brown placer sand grain was examined under High Resolution Scanning Electron microscope attached with EDAX probe analyzer. The grain is enriched with zirconium oxide but it is greatly impoverished in silica to form zircon. From normative calculation, it is known that ZrO2 remains as 47% wt% as baddeleyite after saturating 36% of zircon with all available cations to fill tetrahedral sites. The mineral is enriched with heavy rare earth elements, dense platinum group of elements and gold. LREE, PGE of lower atomic numbers and Ag are characteristically absent in this mineral. The numbers of ions calculated on the basis of 2(O) ions for baddeleyite (Zr0.662 P0.065 Fe0.029 Y0.029 U0.028Dy0.014Si0.111Hf0.008Al0.008 Os0.008Ir0.008Pt0.007 Pb0.007 Ta0.006 Au0.006 Ti0.005 Lu0.005 Na0.004Yb0.004) structure indicating deficiency of 0.105 metallic ions after entering all the metallic ions into the mineral structure. The high Zr/Hf, ratio of 45.9 indicates that early crystallization of baddeleyite. Therefore, it might be related to the provenance of either silica undersaturated ultrabasic rocks or volcanic rocks derived from mantle horizon probably crystallized at temperature below 1170oC.

Published in Earth Sciences (Volume 3, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.earth.20140301.15
Page(s) 31-33
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Baddeleyite, Zircon, Platinum Group of Elements, Heavy Rare Earth Elements, Gold, U-Pb, Beach Placers

References
[1] S.Klemme, and H.P. Meyer, Trace element partitioning between baddeleyite and carbonatite melt at high pressures and high temperatures, Chemical Geology, 199, 2003, 233-242
[2] C.D.K. Herdi, R.A. Stern, E.L. Walton, J. Li, and C. Bibby, Tem and SEM analysis of Baddeleyite in NWA 3171: Geochronological Implications for Martian Meteorites, 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2010, 2280.pdf
[3] A. Rittmann Stable Mineral Assemblages of Igneous Rocks , Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1973
[4] W.C. Butterman and Foster, Zircon stability and the ZrO2-SiO2 phase diagram, Am. Mineral. V. 52, 1967, 880-885
[5] G.P. Zaraiskoy, A.M., Aksyuk, V.N. Devyatova, O.V. Udorantina, and V. Yu. Vhevychelov, The Zr/Hf ratio as a fractionation indicator of Rare-Metal granites, Petrology, 17, No. 1 2009. 25-45
[6] A. Yu. Barkov. Y.A. Pakhonovskii, and P.Y. Men’shikov, Baddeleyite: new occurrences from two mafic-ultramafic layered intrusions, Russia, Mineralogical Magazine, June, vol. 59,1995,.349-353
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  • APA Style

    Ramachandran Ramasamy, Subramanian Subramanian, Ranganathan Sundaravadivelu. (2014). Noble Metals, U, Pb and HREE Bearing Baddeleyite from Placer Sands of Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu, India. Earth Sciences, 3(1), 31-33. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140301.15

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    ACS Style

    Ramachandran Ramasamy; Subramanian Subramanian; Ranganathan Sundaravadivelu. Noble Metals, U, Pb and HREE Bearing Baddeleyite from Placer Sands of Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu, India. Earth Sci. 2014, 3(1), 31-33. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20140301.15

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    AMA Style

    Ramachandran Ramasamy, Subramanian Subramanian, Ranganathan Sundaravadivelu. Noble Metals, U, Pb and HREE Bearing Baddeleyite from Placer Sands of Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu, India. Earth Sci. 2014;3(1):31-33. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20140301.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.earth.20140301.15,
      author = {Ramachandran Ramasamy and Subramanian Subramanian and Ranganathan Sundaravadivelu},
      title = {Noble Metals, U, Pb and HREE Bearing Baddeleyite from Placer Sands of Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu, India},
      journal = {Earth Sciences},
      volume = {3},
      number = {1},
      pages = {31-33},
      doi = {10.11648/j.earth.20140301.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140301.15},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.earth.20140301.15},
      abstract = {Heavy mineral placer sands were collected from Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu. A broken piece of a euhedral grain of dark brown placer sand grain was examined under High Resolution Scanning Electron microscope attached with EDAX probe analyzer. The grain is enriched with zirconium oxide but it is greatly impoverished in silica to form zircon. From normative calculation, it is known that ZrO2 remains as 47% wt% as baddeleyite after saturating 36% of zircon with all available cations to fill tetrahedral sites.  The mineral is enriched with heavy rare earth elements, dense platinum group of elements and gold. LREE, PGE of lower atomic numbers and Ag are characteristically absent in this mineral. The numbers of ions calculated on the basis of 2(O) ions for baddeleyite (Zr0.662 P0.065 Fe0.029 Y0.029 U0.028Dy0.014Si0.111Hf0.008Al0.008 Os0.008Ir0.008Pt0.007 Pb0.007 Ta0.006 Au0.006 Ti0.005 Lu0.005 Na0.004Yb0.004) structure indicating deficiency of 0.105 metallic ions after entering all the metallic ions into the mineral structure. The high Zr/Hf, ratio of 45.9 indicates that early crystallization of baddeleyite. Therefore, it might be related to the provenance of either silica undersaturated ultrabasic rocks or volcanic rocks derived from mantle horizon probably crystallized at temperature below 1170oC.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Noble Metals, U, Pb and HREE Bearing Baddeleyite from Placer Sands of Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu, India
    AU  - Ramachandran Ramasamy
    AU  - Subramanian Subramanian
    AU  - Ranganathan Sundaravadivelu
    Y1  - 2014/03/20
    PY  - 2014
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140301.15
    DO  - 10.11648/j.earth.20140301.15
    T2  - Earth Sciences
    JF  - Earth Sciences
    JO  - Earth Sciences
    SP  - 31
    EP  - 33
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-5982
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140301.15
    AB  - Heavy mineral placer sands were collected from Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu. A broken piece of a euhedral grain of dark brown placer sand grain was examined under High Resolution Scanning Electron microscope attached with EDAX probe analyzer. The grain is enriched with zirconium oxide but it is greatly impoverished in silica to form zircon. From normative calculation, it is known that ZrO2 remains as 47% wt% as baddeleyite after saturating 36% of zircon with all available cations to fill tetrahedral sites.  The mineral is enriched with heavy rare earth elements, dense platinum group of elements and gold. LREE, PGE of lower atomic numbers and Ag are characteristically absent in this mineral. The numbers of ions calculated on the basis of 2(O) ions for baddeleyite (Zr0.662 P0.065 Fe0.029 Y0.029 U0.028Dy0.014Si0.111Hf0.008Al0.008 Os0.008Ir0.008Pt0.007 Pb0.007 Ta0.006 Au0.006 Ti0.005 Lu0.005 Na0.004Yb0.004) structure indicating deficiency of 0.105 metallic ions after entering all the metallic ions into the mineral structure. The high Zr/Hf, ratio of 45.9 indicates that early crystallization of baddeleyite. Therefore, it might be related to the provenance of either silica undersaturated ultrabasic rocks or volcanic rocks derived from mantle horizon probably crystallized at temperature below 1170oC.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Chennai, India

  • Department of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Chennai, India

  • Department of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Chennai, India

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