Preliminary Study of the Occurrence of Lithium in the Ertanggou Deposit,East Tianshan
Zhang Zhengfeng
Li Nuo
Fan Xianglian
Wang Tao
Li Yukun
Jiang Guo
Abstract：Xinjiang is an important lithium province in China.The ever-known deposits are dominated by pegmatite and brine type.Recently,a clay-type lithium deposit has been discovered in the Ertanggou area,East Tianshan.In order to determine the occurrence of lithium in the Ertanggou deposit,we carried out detailed deposit geology,whole-rock chemical composition,X-ray diffraction,automatic mineral Quantitative analysis(TIMA),electron probe microanalysis(EPMA),LA-ICPMS trace element analysis as well as soaking immersion experiments.The results show that,the lithium orebodies are mainly hosted by bioclasts-rich carbonate rocks of the Upper Carboniferous Qijiagou Formation.The ore mainly consists of calcite,quartz and sepiolite,with Li2O content of 0.10%to 0.27%.Sepiolite is the main Li-bearing phase(with Li content up to 9 519×10-6),and there is a good positive relationship between Li and F.Collectively,we propose that the Ertanggou deposit is the first clay-type lithium deposit discovered in Xinjiang.The occurrence of lithium in Ertanggou is significantly different from other clay-type deposits.It has important value of scientific research and practical significance of prospecting.
Keywords：occurrencesepioliteclay-type lithium depositcarbonateEast Tianshanmineral deposit
Publication Date：2025-02-14
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：11( 585-595 )