Abstract:

Vietnam is a nation that demonstrates relatively high potential of rare earth minerals. The rare earth deposits in Vietnam varies from medium to large sales and mostly consist of light rare earth elements situated in northwestern North Vietnam. The most typical heavy rare earth deposit in Vietnam is the Yen Phu Deposit.This deposit is characterized by simple geological structure. Ore bodies are distributed in metamophosed sedimentary rocks of the Song Mua Formation,which have mostly been weathered. Ore mineral composition consists of rare earth minerals (Samarskite, cheralite, xetotime, fergusonite, monazite, ortite), magnetite, goetite, hematite, less psilomelane and pyrite. Total rare earth oxide grade within the ore bodies varies from 1.01 – 1,21% TR2O3 but the grade of the heavy element group is relatively high, which mainly are Y, Gd and account for 29.11- 31,29% of total rare earth content. Associating with rare earth ore is ion and niobium ores. Therefore the Yen Phu Deposit is considered as rare earth-iron type