Marble-Hosted Gem Spinel Deposits from Luc Yen District, North Vietnam: Mineral Systems and Some Aspects of Genesis

Abstract

A comparative study of the mineral-species distribution by various systems in evaporites from the Inder deposit (Kazakhstan) and in marbles of the Luc Yen deposit in North Vietnam, as well as a comparison of these locations in the distribution of species-defining elements, has been conducted. The obtained data show that both locations are almost identical in the set of species-defining elements (O, H, Si, Ca, S, Al, Na, Mg, K, C, F, Cl, and B), but slightly differ only in the Luc Yen marble enrichment in Al, Si, C, and F. The differences in the mineral abundance between evaporites and metamorphic rocks are due to landscape environments and physicochemical conditions of their formation. A comprehensive analysis of the evaporite and marble mineralogy with the identification of species-defining elements (mineral systems) may provide an objective basis for the assumption that evaporites with minor terrigenous material rocks were involved into the formation of ruby and gem spinel deposits.