The discovery of petalite-bearing granite in the Yashan pluton, Jiangxi Province, China

<p indent="0mm"> Against the backdrop of the growing global demand for lithium (Li) resources, minerals such as spodumene, petalite, and lepidolite have been paid considerable attention. All three minerals can be found in pegmatites, but lepidolite is mainly found in granite-type deposits. So far, there have been no reports of petalite and spodumene occurring in granite-type Li deposits. The Yashan pluton, located in Yichun City, Jiangxi Province, is a pluton with significant source of rare metals in South China. It is characterized with its multi-stage magmatic evolution and vertical lithofacies zonation. We discovered the petalite-bearing albite lepidolite granite in the trilithionite granite zone of this pluton. The granite has a porphyritic-like texture, with petalite phenocrysts intergrowing with snowball quartz and K-feldspar phenocrysts. Its matrix contains fine-grained lepidolite and albite. Preliminary studies indicate that the low emplacement pressure (about <sc>180 MPa)</sc> of Li-rich magma led to the crystallization of petalite rather than spodumene, and the relatively low F content of the magma further caused the crystallization of petalite prior to lepidolite. With the increase of fluorine fugacity(<italic>f</italic>_HF) of the magma and the decrease of temperature, fine-grained lepidolite was crystallized. Consequently, it can be deduced that the granite-type Li deposits also have the potential to produce petalite. In the future, attention should be paid to the prospecting and exploration of granite-type petalite deposits.