The Plumbago North pegmatite, Maine, USA: a new potential lithium resource

• Published in: Mineralium deposita Vol. 55; no. 7; pp. 1505 - 1510
• Main Authors: Simmons, William B., Falster, Alexander U., Freeman, Gary
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-10-2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Crystals; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geology; Lithium; Lithium oxides; Mineral Resources; Mineralogy; Mountains; Pegmatite; Plumbago auriculata; Spodumene; Tourmaline; United States > US; Maine; Li-mineralization; Giant crystals; Plumbago north; Montebrasite; Spodumene; Maine
• ISSN: 0026-4598; 1432-1866
• DOI: 10.1007/s00126-020-00956-y

A new spodumene-rich pegmatite was recently discovered on the north side of Plumbago Mountain, Oxford County, Western Maine. The site is about 1.5 km northwest of the famous Dunton gem tourmaline pegmatite. It is an albite-quartz-spodumene pegmatite containing gigantic crystals of spodumene and montebrasite. Some spodumene crystals are more than 11 m in length. The upper portions of the pegmatite contain up to 50 wt% spodumene, which makes it a potentially significant new lithium resource. Preliminary results indicate that Plumbago North Pegmatite contains about 10 Mt of ore with an average Li
2
O content of 4.68 wt% which is a higher average lithium content than any of the ten top spodumene-producing deposits in the world.