Rare metals in the Himalayas

[rangerrebew]

Rare metals in the Himalayas
August 30, 2017

Two sub-parallel belts of Cenozoic aged Himalayan leucogranite on the Tibetan Plateau extend east to west over more than 1000 km, and are regarded as the largest granitic belts in the world. Rare-metal mineralization was identified in relation to these leucogranites.

The Himalayan leucogranite is unique, with petrological characteristics similar to well-known rare-metal granites worldwide. However, relatively few studies on the rare-metal mineralization in this region have been published. The research groups in Nanjing University and Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese and Academy of Science, organized a field expedition in south Tibet in the summer of 2016 to constrain the distribution of mineralization in the region, which was published in the Science China Earth Sciences.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-08-rare-metals-himalayas.html#jCp

[Smokin Joe]

This would explain China's desire to own the plateau. Rare earths are essential to electronics, powerful magnets, etc., and China dominates global production of these elements.