The Main Features of Lithium Metallogeny in Geological Time

Abstract

This paper reports on lithium metallogeny in geological time. The geochronological analysis was conducted on the basis of data on 71 lithium deposits distributed globally. These deposits contain almost all Li resources, which are industrially significant and of potential interest in terms of the economy. It was established that these deposits were formed in different geological epochs, from the Late Mesoarchean to the Holocene. The distribution of their resources on the scale of geological time is distinctly discrete. In the Kenoran, Columbian, and Rodinian supercontinent cycles, only pegmatite deposits of lithium were formed. In the Pangean cycle, the main resources are also attributed to pegmatite deposits, but some of them are concentrated in lithium–fluorine rare-metal granites. In the incomplete Amasian cycle, salars of geodynamically active areas play a main role in the resource base; the epithermal stratiform deposits, pegmatites, and lithium-fluorine granites are of much less significance.