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Geochemistry Of The Fluorine- And Beryllium-Rich Spor Mountain Rhyolite, Western Utah, Shane Robert Dailey

Theses and Dissertations

The Miocene rhyolites of the Spor Mountain Formation hosts the world's largest beryllium deposit which produced 85% of the world's beryllium in 2010. The fresh lava is extremely enriched in Be (up to 75 ppm in matrix glass). We have examined the rhyolite to understand the Be enrichment. The Spor Mountain rhyolite contains ~40% quartz, ~40% sanidine, ~10% biotite, and ~10% plagioclase, along with accessory fluorite, columbite, euxenite, fergusonite, monazite, thorite, and zircon. Two types of rhyolite erupted within the Spor Mountain Formation, a less evolved magma (1150 ppm Rb, 42 ppm Be, 0.68 wt% F in matrix glass) and …