Trachytic Rock and Associated Fenitization in the Bayan Obo Ore Deposit, Inner Mongolia, China: Evidence for Magmatic‐Hydrothermal Mineralization Related to a Carbonatitic Complex

AbstractTrachytic rock and its altered rock—fenite—in the Bayan Obo ore district, Inner Mongolia, China, were referred to as slate or feldspar rock before, and identified by the authors for the first time (in 1992). In the paper the mineral assemblages, structures and textures and petrochemical compositions of the rocks, as well as the electron microprobe analysis of feldspars in the rocks are described. The Sm‐Nd isochron age of the trachytic rock is 1096 ± 56 Ma, with INd=0.51100±4 (2 s̀) and ɛNd(t)= −4.4 ± 0.7. Alterations of the trachytic rock, including microclinization, riebeckitization, aegirinization and biotitization, and accompanied rare element and REE mineralizations are discussed. Based on the occurrence of the trachytic rock and associated fenitization it is deduced that the Bayan Obo Fe‐Nb‐REE ore deposit is genetically related to magmatic‐hydrothermal activity of an alkali carbonatite complex.