Daqingshanite-(Ce)

daqingshanite-(Ce)

benstonite

huntite

strontianite

Images

Formula: Sr3Ce(PO4)(CO3)3
Carbonate phosphate, strontium- and cerium- bearing mineral
Crystal System: Trigonal
Specific gravity: 3.81 measured, 3.71 calculated
Hardness: 4½
Streak: White
Colour: Pale yellow
Luminescence: Not fluorescent under UV
Solubility: Soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid, hardly soluble in ammonium acetate
Weakly RADIOACTIVE
Environments

Plutonic igneous environments
Carbonatites

Localities

At the Poudrette quarry, Mont Saint-Hilaire, La Vallée-du-Richelieu RCM, Montérégie, Québec, Canada, daqingshanite occurs in an intrusive alkalic gabbro - syenite complex, associated with albite, ancylite, pyrite, anatase and chlorite (HOM).
Daqingshanite-(Ce) from the Poudrette Quarry - Image

At the type locality, the Bayan Obo deposit, Bayan Obo, Bayan Obo mining district, Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, China, daqingshanite occurs in monomineralic aggregates in veins cutting dolomite in the footwall zone. The deposit consists of Proterozoic (2.5 billion years ago to 541 million years ago) layered dolomite and minor arkose units which host iron mineralisation. Minerals associated with daqingshanite include benstonite, huntite, strontianite, pyrite, phlogopite and monazite.
Daqingshanite occurs as small, rhombohedral crystals with rounded edges, about 0.05 mm in size. The colour is pale yellow, with a greasy-glassy lustre and a white streak (AM 69.811).

At the Kamthai deposit, Barmer District, Jodhpur Division, Rajasthan, India, daqingshanite occurs as two paragenetic types:
(1) Primary granular coarse grained crystals coexisting with primary carbocernaite, baryte and bastnäsite
(2) Aligned micro-ovoid globules within clasts of strontium-bearing calcite. Carbocernaite forming trellis-type lamellae in some of these calcite clasts does not represent exsolution, but the lamellae are considered as replacement textures as they formed subsequent to daqingshanite. (MM 88.400–411).
Carbonatites (sensu lato) are distinguished on a mineralogical-genetic basis as primary, high-temperature magmatic rocks as opposed to low-temperature, carbothermal, deuteric residual deposits for which the name “carbothermalites” is proposed. Carbothermal deposits are analogous to hydrothermal ore deposits and are formed from fluids dominated by CO2 and/or carbonate anions (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0024493722002705).
The Kamthai deposit is best described as a low temperature carbothermalite microbreccia consisting of a wide variety of clasts resulting from the autobrecciation of rocks formed during, and after, the magmatic to carbothermal transition of an undetermined parental calcite carbonatite-forming magma. Many clasts have been replaced by late stage lanthanum-enriched fluids during the final low-temperature stage of evolution of the deposit (MM 88.400–411).

At the Nkumbwa Hill Carbonatite, Isoka, Isoka District, Muchinga Province, Zambia, daqingshanite occurs in altered magnesiocarbonatite associated with dolomite, monazite, isokite, apatite, strontianite and quartz (HOM).
Daqingshanite-(Ce) from Nkumbwa Hill - Image

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