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Nb-Ta-Ti oxides fractionation in rare-metal granites: Krásno-Horní Slavkov ore district, Czech Republic

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Abstract

Nb-Ta-Ti-bearing oxide minerals (Nb-Ta-bearing rutile, columbite-group minerals) represent the most common Nb-Ta host in topaz-albite granites and related rocks from the Krásno-Horní Slavkov ore district. Tungsten-bearing columbite-(Fe), W-bearing ixiolite, wodginite and tapiolite-(Fe) are extremely rare in these rocks. Rutile contains significant levels of Ta (up to 37 wt.% Ta2O5) and Nb (up to 24 wt.% Nb2O5), with Ta/(Ta + Nb) ratio ranging from 0.04 to 0.61. Columbite-group minerals are represented mostly by columbite-(Fe) and rarely by columbite-(Mn), with Mn/(Mn + Fe) ratio ranging from 0.23 to 0.94. The exceptionally rare Fe-rich, W-bearing ixiolite occurs only as inclusions in Nb-Ta-bearing rutile from quartz-free alkali-feldspar syenites (Vysoký Kámen stock). Wodginite was found only in the topaz-albite microgranite of gneissic breccia matrix that occurs in the upper most part of the Hub topaz-albite granite stock. In wodginite, the Mn/(Mn + Fe) ratio is 0.42–0.51, whereas the coexisting tapiolite-(Fe) has a distinctly lower Mn/(Mn + Fe) ratio close to 0.06.

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Acknowledgements

All microprobe and ICP MS analyses were funded by the Czech Science Foundation (project No. 205/09/0540). This work also benefited from discussions with the team at the Leibniz University of Hannover (Prof. F. Holtz, Dr. M. Van Lichtervelde) in the frame of a joint research program supported by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the German Science Foundation (project 436 TSE 113/48/0-1). Careful and constructive revisions of the original manuscript by an anonymous reviewers and associated editor Anton Chakhmouradian are highly appreciated.

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  1. Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics, Public Research Institution, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 182 09, Prague 8, V Holešovičkách 41, Czech Republic

    Miloš René

  2. Institute of Geological Sciences, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Radek Škoda

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  1. Miloš René
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Correspondence to Miloš René.

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Editorial handling: A. R. Chakhmouradian

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René, M., Škoda, R. Nb-Ta-Ti oxides fractionation in rare-metal granites: Krásno-Horní Slavkov ore district, Czech Republic. Miner Petrol 103, 37–48 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-011-0152-z

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