"Rare earth elements in phoscorites and carbonatites of the Devonian Kola Alkaline Province, Russia: Examples from Kovdor, Khibina, Vuoriyarvi and Turiy Mys complexes"

Abstract

The Devonian (ca. 385-360Ma) Kola Alkaline Province includes 22 plutonic ultrabasic-alkaline complexes, some of which also contain carbonatites and rarely phoscorites. The latter are composite silicate-oxide-phosphate-carbonate rocks, occurring in close space-time genetic relations with various carbonatites. Several carbonatites types are recognized at Kola, including abundant calcite carbonatites (early- and late-stage), with subordinate amounts of late-stage dolomite carbonatites, and rarely magnesite, siderite and rhodochrosite carbonatites. In phoscorites and early-stage carbonatites the rare earth elements (REE) are distributed among the major minerals including calcite (up to 490ppm), apatite (up to 4400ppm in Kovdor and 3.5wt.% REE2O3 in Khibina), and dolomite (up to 77ppm), as well as accessory pyrochlore (up to 9.1wt.% REE2O3) and zirconolite (up to 17.8wt.% REE2O3). Late-stage carbonatites, at some localities, are strongly enriched in REE (up to 5.2wt.% REE2O3 in Khibina) and the REE are major components in diverse major and minor minerals such as burbankite, carbocernaite, Ca- and Ba-fluocarbonates, ancylite and others. The rare earth minerals form two distinct mineral assemblages: primary (crystallized from a melt or carbohydrothermal fluid) and secondary (formed during metasomatic replacement). Stable (C-O) and radiogenic (Sr-Nd) isotopes data indicate that the REE minerals and their host calcite and/or dolomite have crystallized from a melt derived from the same mantle source and are co-genetic.