Assessment of rare earth element potential in intrusive rocks special reference to massenna zircon granite

Abstract

Sri Lanka has a geological setting that favors the presence of rare earth elements (REEs), which are currently identified as the most critical and strategic elements in the world. Previous geochemical studies show that intrusive rocks, such as carbonatites, pegmatites and granitoid rocks could be enriched of REEs. Therefore, this research is focused on assessing the REE potential in pegmatites with special reference to the zircon granite in Massenna. The collected samples from the focused areas were subjected for XRD analysis and monazite, apatite, allanite, bastnaesite, and loparite were found as the major RE minerals. Moreover, Massenna zircon granite has the highest REE potential, particularly LREEs and Y, compared to other pegmatites. The presence of REEs in the in-situ soil and sediment samples indicate that, REEs have been transported through weathering and erosion processes of the zircon granite, thus proving the REE potential in the source rock. Furthermore, REEs are mostly associated with felsic minerals rather than mafic minerals. Therefore, this research clearly provides insights of REE potential in the pegmatite bodies in Sri Lanka and more REE explorations need to be carried out in these prospects.