MINERALOGY AND CHEMISTRY OF LEMITAR CARBONATITES

Carbonatites are unusual igneous rocks with magmatic textures formed in tectonic environments such as continental rifts, subduction, melting of oceanic crust, and melting and partial fractionation of lithospheric mantle material. Carbonites are classified by composition - requiring more than 50% carbonate minerals and less than 20% SiO2. Carbonatites often host significant economic deposits and are currently the primary economic source of Rare Earth Elements (REE). Rare Earth Elements, especially those with atomic numbers fifty-seven (57) to seventy-one (71) are considered critical to information-age technologies due to their unusual magnetic, conductive, luminescent, and fluorescent properties. The Lemitar Mountains of central New Mexico hold limited economic value at present owing to their low REE concentrations and low tonnage; future detailed geophysical studies and drilling data at deeper depths may uncover significant quantities of REE in the area. It is noteworthy that chemical analyses have shown that carbonatites exhibit normalized light rare earth-enriched contrite patterns.