Chemical composition of garnet from the Xintianling skarn W deposit in southern Hunan and its geological significance

Xintianling is a large skarn W deposit in the Nanling W-Sn metallogenic belt, and it is located in the contact zone between the northeastern Qitianling pluton and the Carboniferous carbonate rocks. In this study, the typical skarn mineral, garnet, has been analyzed by LA-ICP-MS to quantify the concentrations of major elements, trace elements, as well as rare earth elements ( REEs). The results reveal that the garnet from the Xintianling deposit mainly belongs to the andradite-grossular solid solution ( And(24) Gro(66) to And(71) Gro(22)) , which shows a transitional trend dominated by either andradite or grossular. The REEs of the garnet show two distinct patterns, one is characterized by HREE enrichment and LREE depletion with negative Eu anomaly, and the other is featured with LREE enrichment and HREE depletion with positive Eu anomaly. These differences suggest that the garnet crystals grow under variable redox conditions and water/rock ratios in the hydrothermal system, which has also been reflected in the oscillatory zones. A compilation of available data from other skarn deposits combined with the results from this study indicates that W and Sn concentrations of garnet from skarn deposits with economic W mineralization are significantly higher than those without W mineralization, implying that the W and Sn concentrations could probably predict the potential economic metals ( especially W) in a skarn system. Furthermore, the results also indicate that the Fe, Eu and U concentrations of garnet can provide useful information for distinguishing the associated metal(s) of a W skarn system, including W-Mo, W-Sn, W-Cu-( Fe) and W-Mo-Cu-( Fe). In conclusion, the current study shows that the compositional characteristics of garnet have certain guiding significance in understanding the ore-formation conditions and evaluating mineralization potentials of metals in a skarn system, especially for these W skarns like Xintianling.