Bibliographic citations
Ramirez, J., (2024). Elemental and isotope characterization of the Lithium-rich Tuff from the Macusani Volcanic Field, Puno, Peru [Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú]. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12404/28552
Ramirez, J., Elemental and isotope characterization of the Lithium-rich Tuff from the Macusani Volcanic Field, Puno, Peru []. PE: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú; 2024. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12404/28552
@mastersthesis{renati/14390,
title = "Elemental and isotope characterization of the Lithium-rich Tuff from the Macusani Volcanic Field, Puno, Peru",
author = "Ramirez Briones, Johan Santiago",
publisher = "Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú",
year = "2024"
}
The transition to eco-efficient technology, particularly rechargeable Li-ion batteries, is causing a significant increase in the demand for lithium. The recently discovered, unconventional, volcanogenic Falchani deposit, situated within the Neogene Macusani Volcanic Field in SE Peru, represents one of the most significant global resources of lithium. The lithium ore is primarily hosted in the so-called Lithium-rich Tuff, a tuffaceous mudstone that is sandwiched between the Upper and Lower Breccia units, which are also Li-rich. The main objective of this thesis is to conduct a geochemical (elemental and isotopic) characterization of the Lithium-rich Tuff with a main focus on parental magma petrogenesis and post-depositional modifications. The major and trace element composition of the Lithium-rich Tuff differs from that of previously reported ash-flow tuff in the Macusani Volcanic Field. Rather, it approximates the composition of highly evolved peraluminous obsidian glasses known as macusanite. The Lithium-rich Tuff shows the distinctive geochemical fingerprint of peraluminous rare metalrich granites and Li-Cs-Ta (LCT) pegmatites, with high contents of F, Sn, W, and other rare metals such as Nb, Ta, Li, and Cs, in addition to a strong depletion in Zr, Th, Y, rare earth elements (REE), and Sr compared to archetypal muscovite-bearing peraluminous granites (MPG). The parental magmas to the Lithium-rich Tuff have been modeled as containing ~15- 30% of a mantle contribution with an isotope signature similar to that of late Miocene potassic–ultra-potassic basaltic melts. The remaining ~70-85% is attributed to Proterozoic and Paleozoic paragneiss and/or Paleozoic metapelite contributions. An early enrichment in incompatible elements in the Lithium-rich Tuff parental magmas is in part explained by assimilation of Paleozoic metapelite rocks with simultaneous fractional crystallization (AFC). However, subsequent metasomatic processes in a pre-eruptive stage in the presence of fluids exsolved from a volatile-rich, highly fractionated, crystal-rich magmatic reservoir were key to the extreme enrichment in Li, Be, Rb, Nb, and Ta. Consequently, such enrichment was not related to in-situ, post-depositional, clay and zeolite alteration processes.
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