Mineralogy and titanite geochronology of the Caojiaba W deposit, Xiangzhong metallogenic province, southern China: implications for a distal reduced skarn W formation

The Caojiaba tungsten deposit (19.03 Mt@ 0.37 wt% WO3) is hosted by skarn along the contact between clastic and carbonate rocks in the Xiangzhong Metallogenic Province of southern China. The deposit is characterized by an early prograde skarn containing low andraditic garnet (Ad0.7–21.9) and hedenbergitic pyroxene (Hd52.9–77.3) overprinted by a retrograde biotite–chlorite assemblage and then by quartz–scheelite veins, similar to well-studied...