Zr and REE mineralization in sodic lujavrite from the Saima alkaline complex, northeastern China: a mineralogical study and comparison with potassic rocks

The Triassic Saima alkaline complex on the Liaodong Peninsula, northeastern China, consists mainly of potassic phonolite, nepheline syenite, and sodic lujavrite. The lujavrite shows significant Zr-REE mineralization, which is present in the form of early magmatic, Zr-REE-enriched clinopyroxene (30%–40%), titanite (5%), and loparite-(Ce), and late magmatic to hydrothermal wadeite, widespread eudialyte group minerals (5%–10%), and catapleiite. Ultimately, the fractionation of the alkaline magma leads to the crystallization of mosandrite and hezuolinite. Textural relations and compositional variation among the characteristic Zr-REE-bearing minerals record that both Zr and REEs were strongly incompatible in the sodic melt, but that Zr mineralization preceded REE mineralization. The main Zr-REE mineralization in the Saima lujavrite resulted from the high peralkalinity, Na/K ratio and HFSE content, low oxygen fugacity, and the intensive activity of water and volatiles of its evolving magma. The discontinuous and abrupt changes in melt composition and mineral assemblage from the potassic nepheline syenite of the complex to the sodic lujavrite suggest that their magma was derived from different episodes of magmatic activity with different physico-chemical characteristics, rather than from the continuous evolution of a single magmatic event.