Brockite in wallrock metasomatites of the Safyanovskoe copper-sulphide deposit (Middle Urals)
The relevance of the work is due to the need to study ore copper-sulphide deposits in the Urals. Purpose of the work: description of accessory brockite in metasomatites of the Safyanovskoe copper-sulphide deposit. Research methodology: the chemical composition of minerals was determined using the Jeol JSM-6390LV scanning electron microscope with an INCA Energy 450 X-Max 80 energy dispersive attachment from Oxford Instruments (Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg). Results and conclusions. For the first time for the Safyanovskoe copper-sulphide deposit (Middle Urals), an aqueous rare earth phosphate of calcium and thorium, brockite, has been determined; it belongs to the group of rhabdophane (Ca,Th,REE)[PO]4 ∙ _H2 O. The mineral is rare for the Urals and was described earlier in granite pegmatites of the Middle and South Urals, as well as in dikes of metaplagiogranites of the Bazhenov ophiolite complex. Brockite was found in the rocky metasomatites of the Safyanovskoe copper-sulphide deposit after crystalline lithoclastic tuff (tuffaceous sandstone) of acid composition. The main mass of the rock consists of quartz, kaolinite (sericite), carbonates (dolomite, Fe-magnesite) with rare inclusions of pyrite. Brockite is found in the dolomite-quartz matrix of the sample in intergrowths with REE-goyazite – strontium aluminophosphate. It is assumed for the Safyanovskoe copper-sulphide deposit that an alumina association with an ore mineral association and rare earth minerals, in particular, REE-alumophosphates and phosphates, will form closely at the same time as the temperature drops and the redox conditions of the mineral formation environment change.