A New Occurrence of Thorianite from Syenitic Pegmatite near Bhaluchuan, Odisha

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Abstract
We report a new occurrence of thorianite from syenitic pegmatite near Bhaluchuan, Sambalpur district, Odisha. The thorianite is brown to deep-brown with round grains of 2 to 10 mm size. The chemical analysis of the investigated thorianite reveals 64.8% ThO2, 25% U3O8, 3.81% PbO and 1.7% Fe2O3. Calculated structural formula of the thorianite is (Th+4 0.61U+4 0.14U+6 0.08ΣREE+3 0.017Pb+2 0.04Ca+2 0.01Mn+2 0.001Fe+3 0.05Al+3 0.003Sc+2 0.002K+1 0.005Na+1 0.008 Si+4 0.04Ti+4 0.02)O2.08. Chondrite-normalised rare-earth element (REE) plot of the thorianite reveals enrichment of light REE (LREE) over heavy REE (HREE) with pronounced negative Eu-anomaly (Eu/Eu* = 0.35). The (ΣLREE/ΣHREE)N ratio is perceptibly high (2.76). The (La/Lu)N (42.31), (La/Yb)N (27.49) and (Ce/Yb)N (21.58) ratios are also very high. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the investigated thorianite displays sharply-defined reflections. Corresponding interplanar spacings (d-spacings) of all the reflections are in very close agreement with those published for thorianite standard in International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) Card No. 4-556. However, I/Io of two reflections (1.9694Å and 1.6787Å) are lower than those published for thorianite standard. The unit cell parameter (ao) of the investigated thorianite (ao 5.5750Å) is also less than ao of thorianite standard (ao 5.6000Å and V 175.62Å3), which is because of extensive substitution of Th by U.

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