Mining Situation and Geochemistry Characteristics of Three Ion Adsorption Rare-Earth Deposit in Guangdong Province

Guangdong has abundant kinds of rare earth element resources. The resource which could satisfy the industry exploitation is only the ion adsorption type of rare earth ores. According to previous survey, Guangdong possesses heavy rare earth element resource, which is about 1/3 of total ion adsorption type ore resource. Recently, there are only three companies owning mining rights (referred to as A, B, C mine quarry, respectively). Mining quota of REO (rare earth oxides) for 2013 was only 2200 tons, while Annual ionic rare earth separation capacity was more than 10000 tons. The contradiction between supply and demand is outstanding. In order to reveal the exploitation situation of the rare-earth ores in Guangdong, we collected samples from weathering crust profiles and tailings of A, B and C mining areas. Additionally, in order to study the geochemical characteristics and their resource potential, we analyzed the rare earth elements, trace elements and associated elements by ICP-MS. Our results show that: (1) Guangdong has quite rich resource in rare earth ore, and the resource we calculated is two more orders of magnitude than previous official calculation. (2) The LREEs/HREEs ratios from three weathering crust of rare earth ore areas all ranges from 1.8 to 6.6, implying these three ores are enriched in LREEs, rather than HREEs. However, only mining the LREE ore is incompatible with market demand and the enrichment of heavy rare earth resources in Guangdong. Furthermore, there is a great gap between the rare earth mining quota and smelting separation ability. Therefore, we suggest to raise more mining right licenses and quota for mining rare earth ore properly. (3) The rare earth content of the humus layer and semi-weathered layer was not high in A and C mining areas, which is surface magnetic type metallogenic model and mineralization zone was located in weathered layer. In contrast, the rare earth content of humic layer and completely weathered layer was high (more than 0.3%) in B mining area, which is shallow type metallogenic model. (4) We need to adjust the mining area of weathering crusts according to market demand to reduce the mining leakage and recycle tailings of rare earth resources. (5) The enrichment factors of trace element content in weathering crusts and tailings are less than 10, compared with continental crust abundance, even some elements are depleted. Accordingly, we suggest it is not useful for recycling the trace elements from weathering crusts and tailings.