Occurrences of energy critical elements; Lithium – Cobalt and Graphite in Europe, a preliminary overview.

Håvard Gautneb (1) , Janja Knežević (1) , Eric Gloaguen (2, 3, 4) , Jérémie Melleton (3) , Blandine Gourcerol (3) , Tuomo Törmänen (5)

1 NGU - Geological Survey of Norway
2 ISTO - Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans - UMR7327
3 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)
4 Métallogénie - UMR7327
5 GKT - Geological Survey of Finland = Geologian tutkimuskeskus tuottaa

There are, based on extracts from the national mineral resource databases of the EuroGeoSurvey members, 1195 occurrences of Li, Co and graphite in Europe, 17of these are active mines This compilation is part of work package 5 of the FRAME project (Forecasting and Assessing Europe's Strategic Raw Materials needs) a section within the framework of the GeoERA project. The data collected classify the occurrences according to their genetic type, their occurrence type and production status. We regard in this compilation all Co locations with a mean Co >100ppm as occurrences for Co. For the other commodities, Li bearing minerals or graphite must be positively identified or explored for to be included. Methodology We collected from European Geological Surveys basic geographical information, status (active/closed/not exploited), occurrence type (occurrence/prospect/deposit) and genetic type for each occurrence. We show the distribution of Li, Co and graphite occurrences in different EU countries (Fig. 1) and their locations and classification according to their genetic types, in Fig 2, 3 and 4.. Results: Lithium Spatial distribution The distribution of lithium in Europe shows a strong clustering (Fig. 2) highlighting the Li potential of the Variscan belt of south and central Europe. Deposit types High-grade Li deposits (Gourcerol et al., 2019; Gloaguen et al., 2018) are represented by: • Li-rich LCT pegmatites • Rare metal granites (Melleton et al., 2015) • Atypical stratiform deposits such as Jadar, encountered in intramontane lacustrine evaporate basins Medium-grade Li deposits (Gourcerol et al., 2019) are represented by: • hydrothermal deposits such as greisens • Li-bearing quartz veins associated with some peraluminous rare metal granites. Other types (Gloaguen et al., 2018) Li-rich (tosudite) hydrothermal alteration aureole around gold quartz veins; Cookeite/lithiophorite in black shales (Dauphiné: ave. 441 ppm Li 2 O, up to 1 847 ppm) or in bauxite deposits and Mn-(Fe) deposits. Li-rich clays (hectorite) are presently unknown in the EU. Lithium carrier Lithium is hosted by various minerals such as phosphates (amblygonite, montebrasite, triphylite), inosilicate (spodumene), phyllosilicates (lepidolite series, zinnwaldite, petalite) and scarce borosilicate (jadarite). Co-products are generally Ta, Nb, Sn, Be. Examples, grades & tonnages Jadar-type Li deposits occur in Serbia and Bosnia. In 2017, the total mineral resources report 135.7 Mt of ore at a grade of 1.86 % Li 2 O and 15.4 % B 2 O 3 (Rio Tinto, 2017) that represents a giant deposit of 2.524 Mt of Li 2 O. / Wolfsberg pegmatites, Austria (236 366.46t Li 2 O-grade 1.0%) / Sepeda pegmatites, Portugal (221 728.1t Li 2 O-grade 1.0%). / Beauvoir rare-metal granite, France (375 000t Li2O-grade 0.78%) / Cinovec greisen (Czech Republic, 5 652 990.2t Li 2 O-grade 0.4 Li 2 O). / Argemela quartz-amblygonite veins mine (Portugal, 80 400t Li 2 O-grade 0.4%).

Domaines: Sciences de la Terre

Håvard Gautneb, Janja Knežević, Eric Gloaguen, Jérémie Melleton, Blandine Gourcerol, et al.. Occurrences of energy critical elements; Lithium – Cobalt and Graphite in Europe, a preliminary overview.. SGA 2019 - 15th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits, Aug 2019, Glasgow, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-02113443⟩