Origin, evolution and rare-metal mineralization of the West-African pegmatites

Abstract

Rare metals are essential to the development of high-tech industry and to the transition toward a low-carbon energy. The Mangodara district (South West of Burkina Faso, West African Craton) exposes rare metals pegmatites associated with metamorphic, migmatitic and magmatic rocks, in a paleaoproterozoic complex of gneiss-granitoids. We investigate the petrogenesis of these pegmatites, discussed between the partial melting of metasediments and the magmatic differentiation of an enriched pluton, through a multi-disciplinary petrographical, geochemical and geochemical and geochronological approach. The studied zone consists of a regional dome, situated in the middle crust (4-7 kbar, Al in hornblende), cored by a tonalitic-trondhjemitic gneiss rich in plagioclase, and mantled by a granodioritic diatexite hosting rafts of amphibolites, paragneisses (sillimanite-garnet/staurolite) and migmatites of birimian protoliths. Plutonic rocks, forming two geochemical Na-rich and K-rich series, are in diffuse contact gneisses or intrusives within. Four types of pegmatites have been identified in the district. Titanite-allanite type pegmatites and apatite-zircon type pegmatites are metaluminous, few evolved, deriving from the late segregation of the tonalitic-trondhjemitic gneiss. Garnet-columbite type pegmatites (Li, Nb) are peraluminous, from the petrogenetic family Mixed Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum and Niobium-Yttrium-Fluor (LCT+NYF). They come from the partial melting of paragneiss with a control of rare metals fractionation in the source by micas, phosphates and garnet, and a contamination by residual liquids from the metaluminous pegmatites. Garnet-REE type pegmatites are NYF pegmatites, originating from the late segregation of a granodioritic gneiss, with a control of rare metals fractionation in the source by allanite, phosphates and amphibole. Titanite-allanite type pegmatite crystallization is dated at 2094.3 ± 8.8 Ma (U-Pb in situ dating of zircon). Regional coo