Discussion on Particularity and Prospecting Direction of Large and Super-Large Spodumene Deposits

The spodumene deposit is an important type of lithium ore deposit, but it's prospecting has been discontinued because of its higher cost than salt lake in extracting lithium. Recently, the demand for lithium has multiplied due to the rapid development of emerging industries, and the recovery of spodumene has become an important source of lithium resources. This article summarizes some metallogenic characteristics of seven large and super-large spodumene deposits at home and abroad, and it is concluded that certain particularities are always associated with large-scale spodumene mineralization. For example, spodumene ore deposit of pegmatite type can be hosted within basic rocks instead of granite, gneiss, schist and other common host rocks. The size of spodumene grain can be either coarse or fine in the pegmatite. The zonality of pegmatite veins containing spodemene can be of good or not. The shape of the pegmatite veins can be simple or extremely complex. The metallogenic epoch can be old to the Archean or be new to the Cenozoic. The metallogenic tectonic environment can be a stable platform or an active Himalayan orogenic belt. In this paper, the prospecting direction of large and super-large spodumene deposits is discussed in terms of the particularity of the host rock, the mineralization epoch, the tectonic background and the mineralization zonality and so on. It points out that prospecting can neither be confined to the periphery of granite rock mass, nor taking the Greenbushes in Western Australian or the Tanco in North American located in old platform as the only case. It can't only think about the complexity of Xinjiang Koktokey, and oversight other super-large deposits whose size can be ten times in large deposits but in simple form such as the Jiajika and the Ke'eryin pegmatite fields in Sichuan. Also, it can not only consider the traditional geological method but also combine the actual situation to establish proper geophysical and geochemical prospecting models. As long as the specific problem is analyzed, the prospecting method is expanded, the exploration technique is used properly, it is completely possible to obtain a new prospecting breakthrough.