Introduction

Location
Bikita is situated approximately 70km east of Masvingo town in south-eastern Zimbabwe (Fig. 1). From
Masvingo, access to the mine is via a 65km all weather tarred road to the east and then branching north-
east into a gravel road for approximately 5 km.

Regional Geology
The Masvingo greenstone Belt which hosts the pegmatites is 80 km long by 10 km wide trending NE-
SW. The belt takes the form of a complexly folded synclinorium. The major unit within the belt is the
Archean Bularwayan Supergroup consisting of a lower sedimentary group of pelitic schist, banded iron
formation and carbonates and an upper volcanic group of pillow lavas and schists. Most of the larger
pegmatites occur in the upper volcanic group. The entire belt is surrounded massive granitic plutons age
dated at 2.6 BY. Phanerozoic diabase dikes cut the intrusives.
Geology of the Bikita Field
15th pegmatite have been named as dumpsite pegmatite. Host rocks are chloritic schists of the volcanic
group. A local, central dome that has exposed the underlying sedimentary group, appears to be the major
structural feature. The pegmatites lie along the flanks of the dome trending subparallel to the axis of the
schist belt. Perhaps, due to the extensive folding the pegmatites are more lenticular in shape than is the
norm. Zoning is well developed. Important minerals include albite, microcline, quartz, lepidolite,
zinnwaldite, amblygonite, spodumene, petalite, beryl and pollucite.
The Main Bikita pegmatite is the largest in the district, about 1600 meters long and 40-200 meter wide. It
has been prospected down dip 300 meters. The pegmatite strike N-S and dips 15-45 degrees to the east. It
has sharp contacts with the enclosing schist.
Zoning is well defined. It consists of a fine grained border zone, wall zone of coarse grained feldspar,
mica, quartz, beryl and lepidolite, intermediate zones of spodumene, petalite, albite, pollucite and a core
zone of massive quartz and lepidolite. Zoning is consistent along the entire strike length of the pegmatite,
however, zones vary sharply in thickness.
Total ore reserve is 6MT averaging 2.9% Li 2O, but only about 3MT was mined before the mine ceased
operation.
Characteristics of Pegmatites
1. Two major categories, zoned with complex rnineralogies and unzoned composed of quartz, feldspar
and mica.
2. Host rocks are quite variable, but economic pegmatites often associated with felsic intrusives.
3. Most pegmatites small and dike-like in form.
4. Range in age from Archean to Mesozoic.
5. Economic pegmatites often occur in amphobolite grade metamorphic rocks at some distance from the
plutonic source.
6. Thought to represent residual volatile-rich fluids remaining after crystallization of the main plutonic
body
The Bikita Tin Field
Widespread pegmatite-based mineralisation appears to be associated genetically with the late-tectonic
Chilimanzi Suite of granites (Broderick, 1981). An account of the Bikita ''fin' Field, which was the largest
Li producer and the 6th largest Be producer in the world during the 1960s and 1970s, is presented. The
review will illustrate additional aspects of Archaean rare-element mineralisation.
Lithium-rich pegmatites are emplaced into partly metamorphosed greenstones, and meta-sediments of the
Bulawayan Group (Section 4.2.1) (Martin, 1964). Their age is still uncertain but they intrude the
greenstone belts (Fig. 4.8). The pegmatites are lensoid or tabular, show a regularity of strike and a length
to-depth ratio of 5: 2. Where exposed, the ends are sharp. They do not show regional zonation, and are
therefore assumed to have been produced by one or similar batches of magma. Local fractionation within
the confmes of the field may account for differences between the pegmatites.
 The Bikita Mining Field (after Dixon, 1979)

The Main Pegmatite is 1500 metres in length, and on average 50 metres in width. Dips vary between 15
and 44°. The Bikita Lepidolite and the AI Hayat quarries had 65% of the Li reserves of the field in 1964.
The Main Pegmatite has large bodies of Li-minerals with the main are mineral, lepidolite, being
associated with petalite, spodumene, amblygonite and eucryptite in addition to beryl. The Bikita Section
is part of the Main Pegmatite.
The Bikita Section
The footwall border zone consists of blocky greenstone referred to as “spotted dog zone”. It is a persistent
marker horizon 0.80 to 3m in thickness. It has a 2 to l0cm lining in which zinnwaldite is associated with
albite and quartz. Being 15 centimetres in thickness, the hanging-wall border zone is thicker than that of
the foot-wall.
 Typical zoning in the pegmatites of the Bikita Field (after Dixon, 1979)
The wall zones comprise albite, oligoclase, quartz, mica with sporadic beryl. This is the main carrier of
beryl at Bikita. Rhythmic and very concentric layering occurs due to antithetic variation between albite
and lepidolite. The upper wall zone is 0.8 to 6m in thickness and contains microcline and quartz. It is the
main zone from which microcline, with crystals up to 30 centimetres is produced.
The intermediate zones consist of albite, petalite, spodumene and pollucite. The lower intermediate zone
is rich in Li, and has fine intergrowths of albite, lepidolite and minor quartz. Beryl, which typically occurs
in the wall zone disappears in the transition to the intermediate zone, but aggregates 15 to 50cm across
occur near the core to form what has locally been termed the 'cobble zone". The upper intermediate zone
shows the mineralogical assemblage in which spodumene > quartz > albite > > petalite. Spodumene and
quartz are intergrown while albite is sugary, probably suggesting that the latter is of replacement type.
The zone hosts a pollucite body roughly 186m x 7.5m x 314m. This consists of roughly equal amounts of
lepidolite, petalite, feldspar and pollucite.
Map and cross-section (inset) of one of the levels of the Bikita sector, part of the of the Bikita
Pegmatite Field, Zimbabwe (after Cooper, 1964)

The core zone is the principal economic unit of the Main Pegmatite. 450,000 tons of lepidolite with 35 to
4.3% Lip had been produced by 1964 (Martin, 1964). It is continuous for 330 metres in one part.
Asymmetry is shown by its variable distance from the hanging wall, which ranges between 14 and 9Om.
Telescoping is also displayed by its occassional gradation into intermediate zone assemblages.
Mineralogically, it consists of massive lepidolite. Chemical comparison of the core with the intermediate
zone indicates higher lithia contents with correspondingly reduced amounts of quartz and albite. Other
minerals recovered from the pegmatites at Bikita include AI- and manganotantalite, microlite, cassiterite
and beryl. Also present are insignificant quantities of euxinite, tetrahedrite, fergusonite, malachite, azurite
and chalcocite.
PEGMATITE MINERALIZATION
PEGMATITES
Pegmatites are intrusive igneous rocks with very coarse-to gigantic-sized textures. What typifies the
world’s most famous granitic pegmatites is a combination of gigantic crystal size and extreme enrichment
of rare elements. However, pegmatites actually have the greatest range of grain sizes known in any rock
type, from sub-millimeter to tens of meters. Pegmatitic textures can develop in any intrusive igneous rock
type from ultramafic, to granitic, to syenitic in composition. Most commonly, the term is used to refer to
granitic pegmatites and is generally understood to refer to rock of overall granitic composition when it is
used without a qualifying adjective (e.g. gabbroic pegmatite).Pegmatites are either simple or complex, the
Bikita Pegmatite Dyke is intrusive into the greenstone series of the Bulawayan system which forms part
of the Precambrian basement complex.

2.2 Complex lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite occurrences

Complex lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites are related to orogenic belts, typically involving
high-grade metamorphic terrains and reworked or exhumed deep continental crust. LCT pegmatites
predominantly occur in continent-continent collision zones, whilst Sn and W deposits can be decoupled
and occur in post-orogenic extension and continental arc settings. The fertility of LCT pegmatites is
determined by the presence of intensely chemically weathered, and therefore Li-, Cs-, Sn- and W-
enriched sedimentary protolith, accumulating along continental margins as a result of sedimentary and
tectonic processes, and an orogenic and mantle-derived heat source during subduction and melting
processes resulting in the preferential formation of Sn, W and LCT mineralisation across major suture
zones.
All LCT pegmatites are emplaced into orogenic hinterlands. That is, they are found in cores of mountain
belts where metasedimentary and granitic rocks predominate. Many of the world’s largest LCTs are found
in Archean and (or) Paleoproterzoic orogens; these pegmatites originated in the hinterlands of orogenic
belts that have long since lost all topographic expression. The fundamental connection between LCT
pegmatites and tectonics is that they are indirect products of plate convergence. To date, however, few
LCT pegmatites have been closely tied to specific, well-documented plate-tectonic events or settings at
the orogen scale.

2.4 LITHIUM MINERALIZATION

Economic lithium mineralization in pegmatites is dominated by spodumene , but other important ore
minerals are petalite , lepidolite group minerals, which also can constitute Rb ore, and amblygonite–
montebrasite . Few studies have determined the concentrations required for Li-mineral saturation in
granitic melts, but at 100–200 MPa (H2O saturation) and ~700 °C, petalite is a liquidus phase at
approximately 2 wt% Li2O in the melt (London 2005). The lithium aluminosilicate phase diagram has
made a considerable impact on understanding of the crystallization conditions of rare-element pegmatites.
Initially, this diagram was used to interpret the pressure of pegmatite crystallization assuming equilibrium
conditions; e.g. at 600 ºC spodumene crystallizes at high pressure (greater than ~350 MPa), whereas
petalite crystallizes at relatively low pressure. Numerical modeling indicates that where pegmatite dikes
cool rapidly crystallization may occur at temperatures well below the liquidus (Webber et al. 1999;
London 2008). Consequently, certain spodumene-bearing pegmatites are now interpreted as having
crystallized at highly undercooled conditions, rather than at higher pressure.
Figure 3: Quartz-saturated phase relationships of Li aluminosilicate minerals. LONDON (2005)

2.5 TANTALUM
There are two dominant styles of tantalum mineralization (ˇCerný 2005; Van Lichtervelde et al. 2007).
Magmatic Ta oxides are disseminated or occur in layers in aplite (commonly albite rich). Tantalite
solubility in granitic melts depends strongly on temperature, on the ratio of alkalis to aluminum in the
melt (Linnen and Cuney 2005), and on the abundance of fluxing components in the melt (Bartels et al.
2010). Grades in most Ta deposits are a few hundred parts per million. The solubility data indicate either
that tantalite-(Mn) (MnTa2O6) crystallizes at low temperature (<500 °C) or that Ta concentrations in
highly evolved melts are much higher than a few hundred parts per million. Low temperatures are
plausible because of the high concentrations of fluxing components, and it is possible that the loss of
these components and/or alkalis (chemical quenching; London 2008) may trigger tantalite crystallization.
Other experiments show that columbite- (Mn) (MnNb2O6) has a lower solubility than tantalite-(Mn)
(Linnen and Cuney 2005).
Consequently, the decrease of Nb/Ta observed at scales ranging from individual columbite group crystals
to zoning in pegmatite fields can be explained by fractional crystallization of columbite-group minerals.
The second style of Ta mineralization is associated with late replacement units, which produce rocks
composed mostly of albite (ˇCerný 2005; Kontak 2006) or muscovite (Van Lichtervelde et al. 2007) . Van
Lichtervelde et al. (2007) proposed that this metasomatism involved highly fluxed melts rather than
hydrothermal fluids, based on the high solubility of Ta in highly fluxed silicate melts, the low solubility
of Ta in aqueous fluids, and the textures and chemistry of Ta oxide assemblages. Highly fluxed melts are
capable of transporting weight percent levels of Ta (Bartels et al. 2010). Such melts possess low
viscosities (London 2008) and thus are highly mobile. They may originate as boundary layers that can
transport Ta and other HFSEs via a zone refinement process (London and Morgan 2012 this issue).
 Alternatively, highly fluxed melts may be related to immiscibility (Thomas et al. 2006), but Ta
distribution does not appear to be controlled by immiscibility (Borisova et al. 2012). Regardless of the
origin of the highly fluxed melts, Ta and other HFSEs are highly soluble in these melts. It is unlikely that
temperature ((i.e. undercooling; see London and Morgan 2012) is the sole control of mineralization.
Chemical quenching, in which the fluxing components are dissipated or removed by crystallization,
diffusion, or loss to a vapor phase, may trigger tantalite crystallization. Textural evidence for this process
lies in the intimate intergrowth of HFSE minerals (tantalite, zircon, and apatite; Van Lichtervelde et al.
2007).
Although hydrothermal fluids may not play a critical role in the transport of Ta, they may nevertheless be
important in controlling mineralization by adding to the melt the divalent cations Fe, Mn, and Ca, which
are essential components of columbite–tantalite-(Fe, Mn), wodginite , and microlite . Tantalum minerals
are also intimately intergrown with apatite and zircon, suggesting that the crystallization mechanism for
different HFSE minerals may be interrelated (see also C ˇ erný et al. 2007).
2.6 CESIUM MINERALIZATION
The cesium content of beryl can reach weight percent levels, and thousands of parts per million Cs can be
present in micas and K-feldspar in highly evolved LCT pegmatites (ˇCerný 1989). However, the principal
Cs ore mineral is pollucite, which can contain in excess of 30 wt% Cs2O. To our knowledge, the only
deposit where pollucite is mined is the Tanco pegmatite, although it also occurs in many pegmatites
worldwide, notably at Bikita. About 5 wt% Cs2O is required for pollucite saturation in H2O-saturated
granite melt at 200 MPa and ~680 °C (London 2005). Starting with the bulk continental crust composition
of 2 ppm Cs, it seems impossible that any melt could ever undergo such extensive fractional
crystallization. However, like beryl, pollucite solubility is strongly dependent on temperature, and at ~390
°C, a granitic melt can be saturated with pollucite at a Cs concentration of ~4700 ppm (London 2005).