Melt inclusions in quartz from an evolved peraluminous pegmatite: Geochemical evidence for strong tin enrichment in fluorine-rich and phosphorus-rich residual liquids

We have investigated the magmatic evolution of a late-stage, F- and P-rich, pegmatite-forming aluminosilicate liquid and the geochemical controls on magmatic mineralizing processes by remelting totally-crystallized melt inclusions in quartz and analyzing the quenched glass by EPMA and SIMS. The quartz phenocrysts were sampled from a pegmatite that occurs in a Variscan granite genetically associated with cassiterite- and wolframite-mineralized greisen veins at the Ehrenfriedersdorf Sn-W deposit, central Erzgebirge, SE Germany. The melt inclusion compositions imply that the pegmatite-forming liquid achieved extreme levels of chemical differentiation. It contained high abundances of Sn, F, P, Li, Rb, Cs, Nb, Ta, and Be and abnormally low concentrations of Ca, Y, Sr, and REE for a granite, and it was strongly peraluminous (the molar [Al2O3/CaO + Na2O + K2O] ranged from 1.3 to 2.0). Fractions of the pegmatite-forming liquid were extremely enriched in P2O5 + F + Al2O3, and the molar abundances of (F + P) in the glasses correlate strongly with moles of network-modifying Al ions implying that the bulk liquid included F-, P-, and Al-bearing complexes. Formation of these complexes reduced the activities of F, P, and Al in bulk liquid, suppressed the crystallization of magmatic topaz and P-rich minerals, and allowed the liquid to become enriched in these constituents. Some fractions of the Ehrenfriedersdorf aluminosilicate liquid contained 1000-2000 ppm Sn. These levels of Sn enrichment were up to 2 orders of magnitude greater than that ever reported for nonmineralized, metaluminous and peraluminous igneous materials and are consistent with some experimentally-derived Sn solubilities in cassiterite-saturated granitic liquids at geologically relevant pressures and temperatures. This concordance implies that cassiterite could have crystallized directly from this highly evolved, P- and F-rich peraluminous granitic liquid without the involvement of hydrothermal fluids. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.