Major, trace and rare earth elements of apatite and zircon U-Pb ages of ore-associated and barren granitoids from the Edong ore district, South China.

The data in this article contains major, trace and rare earth element concentrations of apatite, and statistic analysis of apatite morphology in the granitoid rocks from the Edong ore district, South China, together with zircon U-Pb dating results for these rocks. Both the ore-associated and barren granitoids yield similar ages, including quartz diorite in the Fuzishan Cu-Au skarn deposit (138.6 ± 2.9 Ma), quartz monzodiorite in the Niutoushan Cu skarn deposit (137.8 ± 1.8 Ma), quartz diorite in the Ouyangshan Cu skarn deposit (138.4 ± 1.2 Ma), Liujiawan quartz monzodiorite (135.0 ± 2.4 Ma), and Bengqiaodi quartz monzodiorite porphyry (138.7 ± 1.1 Ma). Apatite occurs in all the minerals for each rock sample, and a detailed petrographic analysis shows the majority of them are early formed mineral phase. The F, Cl, SO contents in apatite are different, those in ore-associated rocks show higher values than barren ones. Li, Ni, Co, V contents are also higher in apatites from the ore-associated rocks than in barren rocks. Apatite (La/Sm) and (Yb/Sm) ratio show a positive correlation for ore-associated rocks but a negative correlation for barren rocks.