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A New Scandium-Bearing Variety of Tusionite from the Eastern Pamirs (Tajikistan)

  • MINERALS AND MINERAL PARAGENESES
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Abstract

A new Sc-bearing variety of tusionite has been found in the Eastern Pamirs, in the near-miarolitic Dorozhny granite pegmatite complex at the Kukurt pegmatite field (left bank of the Kukurt River, 45 km east of the settlement of Murghab, Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, Tajikistan). Miarolitic pegmatites are related to the alpine leucocratic granites of the Shatput intrusive complex and occur in rocks of the Sarydzhilga Formation (PR3?) metamorphosed under amphibolite and epidote–amphibolite facies. Tusionite occurs in association with quartz, K-feldspar, albite, elbaite, Sc-bearing spessartine (up to 0.2 wt % Sc2O3) and accessory fluorapatite, Y-bearing fluorite, Sn-bearing titanite, magnetite, polycrase-(Y), B-rich gadolinite-(Y), ixiolite, manganocolumbite, pyrochlore, chernovite-(Y), cassiterite, varlamoffite, lepidolite, and Hf-rich zircon (up to 17.0 wt % HfO2). Tusionite forms thin lamellae (0.05–0.25 mm) and fanlike aggregates. It is yellow and transparent with a vitreous luster. It has weak pleochroism, No (orange–yellow) > Ne (light yellow). It is a uniaxial negative mineral, no = 1.870(5), ne = 1.760(3). The Raman spectrum has been reported for tusionite for the first time (laser excitation 532 nm); main bands: 228, 305, 379, 466, 661, 733, 750, 942, 1218, and 1458 cm–1. Its X-ray diffraction pattern is similar to tusionite from the Southwestern Pamirs. Hexagonal unit cell parameters: a = 4.772(3), c = 15.28(3) Å. Chemical composition (electron microprobe, wt %, average of 14 analyses): 0.06 (0.00–0.31) Ta2O5; 50.28 (49.43–51.03) SnO2; 0.02 (0.00–0.19) TiO2; 1.02 (0.62–1.53) Sc2O3; 0.03 (0.00–0.19) CaO; 0.21 (0.16–0.46) FeO; 24.06 (23.59–24.34) MnO; 24.51 (calc. 23.90) B2O3; total 99.62 (99.08–100.79). The substitution mechanism involving Sc is not clear. Substitution of Sc+3 for Sn+4 with partial replacement of Mn+2 by Mn+3 is possible; however, Sc negatively correlates not only with Sn, but also with (Fe + Mn), which may result from the location of Sc in both octahedral positions with Sn+4 and Mn+2.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank A.A. Agakhanov, A.R. Faiziev, and B.A. Alidodov for their assistance in organizing and conducting field work in the Eastern Pamirs; V.D. Shcherbakov, for his help in obtaining the Raman spectra of minerals; and I.V. Pekov, for valuable advice and attention to our research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Head Geological Department of the Tadjik Republic Government, Geological Exploration Expedition for Gems and Decorative Stones, 734025, Dushanbe, Tajikistan

    M. A. Mirakov

  2. Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119071, Moscow, Russia

    M. A. Mirakov, L. A. Pautov, M. A. Shodibekov, P. Yu. Plechov & V. Yu. Karpenko

  3. Institute of Geology, Earthquake Engineering, and Seismology, Academy of Sciences of the Tajikistan Republic, 734025, Dushanbe, Tajikistan

    M. A. Mirakov & M. A. Shodibekov

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  1. M. A. Mirakov
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  2. L. A. Pautov
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  3. M. A. Shodibekov
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  4. P. Yu. Plechov
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  5. V. Yu. Karpenko
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Correspondence to M. A. Mirakov.

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Translated by E. Maslennikova

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Mirakov, M.A., Pautov, L.A., Shodibekov, M.A. et al. A New Scandium-Bearing Variety of Tusionite from the Eastern Pamirs (Tajikistan). Geol. Ore Deposits 61, 809–817 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1075701519080087

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