Geological and geochemical constraints on the genesis of the Xiangquan Tl-only deposit, eastern China

The Xiangquan Tl deposit, located in the northern part of the Middle–Lower Yangtze Valley metallogenic belt, eastern China, is the only known Tl-only deposit. It is hosted in micritic limestone, marl and mudstone of the Lower Ordovician Lunshan Formation. The orebodies are controlled by the Xiao–Xiaolongwang–Dalongwang anticline and two reverse faults, and are generally stratabound and lenticular. Tl is only ore metal contained in disseminated, massive, brecciated and banded ores. The ore is composed of Tl-bearing pyrite, and gangue minerals quartz, fluorite, barite and carbonate. Alteration minerals include fluorite, barite, fine grained quartz and carbonate. Tl occurs isomorphously replacing iron in the lattice of pyrite, and less commonly as tiny independent Tl-bearing minerals which may be lafossaite (TlAsS2) or lorandite (TlCl) appearing as 0.1–1 μm-sized cubic crystals. Xiangquan is a submarine sedimentary deposit and demonstrates that Tl, as a normally dispersed element, can form not only part of poly-metallic deposits but also as independent Tl deposits.