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Geoscience ›› 2025, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (04): 920-930.DOI: 10.19657/j.geoscience.1000-8527.2024.028

• Ore Deposit and Petrology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

LA-ICP-MS In-Situ U-Pb Ages of Uraninite from the Dafuling Uranium Deposit, Eastern Hunan, and Its Implications for Ore Genesis

FAN Pengfei1,2,3(), SHEN Xikun4, HUANG Guangwen5, LI Mangen2,*(), GU Yong3, WANG Ke3, LIU Tao3, GUO Yeda3   

  1. 1. Yichun University, Yichun, Jiangxi 336000, China
    2. East China University of Technology, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330013, China
    3. Hunan Engineering Technology Research Center for Evaluation and Comprehensive Utilization of Associated Radioactive Mineral Resources, Changsha, Hunan 410007, China
    4. Hunan Branch of China National Geological Exploration Center of Building Materials Industry, Zhuzhou, Hunan 412001, China
    5. School of Emergency and Disaster Reduction, Qinghai Normal University, Xining, Qinghai 810008, China
  • Online:2025-08-10 Published:2025-08-27
  • Contact: LI Mangen

Abstract:

The Dafuling Uranium Deposit is part of the Mingyuefeng Ore Field in eastern Hunan, and it represents a newly proven perigranitic uranium deposit within this ore concentration area. Recent prospecting and exploration practices have shown that the deposit exhibits significant uranium mineralization scale and considerable prospecting potential. However, due to the insufficient analysis of the characteristics of uranium minerals in this deposit and the weak constraints on the timing of uranium mineralization, the understanding of the ore deposit’s genesis has been somewhat hindered. Against this backdrop, this study conducted detailed field geological surveys, collected representative uranium ore samples, and employed laboratory ore-mineral identification, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and LA-ICP-MS, among other analytical techniques. For the first time, it deciphered the characteristics of uranium minerals in the deposit and constrained their metallogenic age. The results indicate that the exposed uranium mineral in the deposit is mainly uraninite, with a uranium metallogenic age of approximately 70 Ma, corresponding to the late Cretaceous. Combined with the tectonic setting, it is preliminarily considered that the mineralization is closely related to the Mesozoic (75-70 Ma) lithospheric extension and thinning event in South China, indirectly indicating that the Dafuling Uranium Deposit might have formed in a tectonodynamic setting of lithospheric extension and thinning.

Key words: uraninite, LA-ICP-MS, uranium age, Dafuling deposit, Mingyuefeng ore field

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