Most importantly, mineralogical analysis at Stromberg shows the heavy rare earth is contained within the REE mineral
Xenotime (see TUC ASX Announcement 14th September 2011).
Zagi Mountain and related sites near Peshawar on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan have recently begun to produce what are probably the finest specimens of bastnasite,
xenotime, and baotite known.
Perth, Australia, Sep 14, 2011 - (ABN Newswire) - TUC Resources Limited (ASX:TUC) is pleased to report that analyses of four drilling samples from the Stromberg Prospect has shown that the rare earths are contained in the mineral
xenotime.
The age of the deposit, as determined by U-Pb chronometry on samples of
xenotime and monazite (Scharer et al., 1999), is between 97 and 112 million years.
- The chemistry of the samples supports the theory that the mineralisation is hosted by the rare earth mineral
xenotime.
Xenotime mineralisation would support a low cost physical separation process, such as magnetic concentration or froth flotation (mineralogical and metallurgical test work has been scheduled to confirm this interpretation).
Late November/early December of 2003 saw a discovery of world-beating crystals of
xenotime at Torghar, Kyber Agency, Pakistan--about 10 km from the earlier-known Zagi Mountain locality which has also lately produced exceptional specimens of
xenotime (see the full article on Zagi Mountain elsewhere in this issue).
New quartz-xenotime discoveries indicate the presence of widespread
xenotime mineralisation containing high-value HREE and Yttrium.
Nearby, at Andreas Wecrth's [weerth@aweerth-mineralien.de] booth, was a beautiful 5 x 20 mm
xenotime crystal on a 7 x 10-cm matrix from the Zegi Mountain bastnasite locality in Pakistan, marked 61,200.
Associated minerals (in addition to the normal rock-forming minerals of granitic pegmatites) are: behierite, rhodizite, spodumene, elbaite-liddicoatite series of the tourmaline group, danburite, cesian beryl, pollucite, manganoan fluorapatite, uranoan microlite,
xenotime, monazite, manganocolumbite, manganotantalite, hubnerite and hafnian zircon.
The sharp loose prisms of
xenotime from Bahia, Brazil have been known for some time, but three huge crystals shown in the hotel ballroom by Doug Wallace may well be the world's best
xenotime specimens (Marty Zinn bought the very best one early on in the show).
All the REEs are 100% hosted in coarse-grained monazite, however the LREO:HREO ratio for IV-19-014 between 24.0 to 25.05 m, in particular, suggests another REE mineral host, and based on the 2018 heavy mineral sand study which identified a significant concentration of
xenotime within the sands, Appia believes this interval reflects monazite with
xenotime mineralization.
Other minerals that contain them and that are reported in Mexico are: betaphite, monazite, titanite and
xenotime. In igneous rocks on the surface of the earth, the cerium (Ce) is the most abundant element of them.