Glow discharge mass spectrometry studies on nephrite minerals formed by different metallogenic mechanisms and geological environments

Glow discharge mass spectrometry (GD-MS) was applied to study the nephrite minerals formed by different metallogenic mechanisms and geological environments from deposits in China, Canada, New Zealand and Russia. The GD-MS analysis and multivariate statistic analysis results indicated that two types of nephrite minerals of different metallogenic mechanisms could be classified by some typical elements. It was shown that serpentine-related nephrite minerals had higher concentrations of Cr, Co and Ni than dolomitic-marble-related nephrite minerals. Meanwhile, nephrite samples from Wenchuan had higher concentrations of Mn, V than other deposits and nephrite samples from Xiaomeiling had higher concentrations of Sr, K and Na than other deposits, which were consistent with their geological environments. These analytical results of nephrite samples by GD-MS showed that both metallogenic mechanisms and geological environments could affect the elemental concentrations in nephrite minerals.

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► GD-MS analysis was used to study nephrite minerals of different deposits.
► Two types of nephrite minerals were separated by Cr, Co and Ni elements.
► Nephrite minerals from some specific deposits had their typical elements.