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On the geochemistry of tantalum in the carbonatite process

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Abstract

The behavior of tantalum in carbonatites and related rocks of alkaline complexes was analyzed. In particular, we considered factors favorable for its accumulation in carbonatites, both in absolute amount and relative to its companion element niobium.

The contents of both elements show moderate variations in earlier alkaline silicate rocks and more significant variations in carbonatites; this difference is especially pronounced for tantalum.

Their simultaneous accumulation in carbonatites is controlled mainly by the affiliation to certain temperature facies, when tantalate-niobate phases with high Ta2O5 contents (up to 26 wt %) are formed. The accumulation of these elements with the formation of almost purely niobian pyrochlores and Ta-U pyrochlores (hatchettolites) occurs efficiently only during the formation of metasomatic zoning with the separation of purely Nb and Nb-Ta mineralization between the zones of the metasomatic column. This process is characteristic mainly of relatively deep-seated massifs, where the metasomatic processes of carbonatite formation are dominant, at least for the given temperature facies.

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  1. Institute of Mineralogy, Geochemistry, and Crystal Chemistry of Rare Elements, ul. Veresaeva 15, Moscow, 121357, Russia

    Yu. A. Bagdasarov

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  1. Yu. A. Bagdasarov
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Correspondence to Yu. A. Bagdasarov.

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Original Russian Text © Yu.A. Bagdasarov, 2009, published in Geokhimiya, 2009, No. 2, pp. 171–183.

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Bagdasarov, Y.A. On the geochemistry of tantalum in the carbonatite process. Geochem. Int. 47, 163–173 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702909020049

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