Contrasting sources and enrichment mechanisms in lithium-rich salt lakes: A Li-H-O isotopic and geochemical study from northern Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Lithium (Li), a crucial mineral resource for modern high-tech industries, is notably abundant in the northern Tibetan Plateau, primarily within lithium-rich salt lakes. However, the exploration and development of these resources are hindered due to an incomplete understanding of their nature and origin. Here we present results from a comprehensive study on the hydrochemical parameters, whole-rock geochemistry, H-O isotopes, and Li concentrations in surface brine, river water, geothermal springs, and associated rocks from two representative lithium-enriched salt lakes, the Laguo Co (LGC) and Cangmu Co (CMC) in Tibet to understand the genetic mechanisms. Our water-salt balance calculations and H-O isotopic analysis reveal that Li in LGC and CMC primarily originates from the Suomei Zangbo (SMZB, ∼91%) and Donglong Zangbo (DLZB, ∼75%) rivers, respectively. It is estimated that the LGC and CMC took a minimum of 6.0 ka and 3.0 ka to accumulate their current lithium resources, respectively. The distinct geological characteristics reflect evolutionary differences between the two lakes, suggesting diverse lithium sources and enrichment processes. The high lithium ion concentration and light lithium isotope composition in the SMZB river waters indicate the genetic relationship with lithium-enriched geothermal springs in the Tibetan Plateau. Our results suggest that lithium in the LGC originates from lithium-enriched geothermal springs and is primarily supplied through the small-scale SMZB river. In contrast, the formation and evolution of CMC are influenced by the northern Lunggar rifts, receiving a prolonged and stable input from the DLZB, resulting in high lithium concentrations and isotopic values. The absence of lithium-enriched geothermal springs and the prevalence of silicate rocks in the CMC catchment suggest that lithium may be sourced from the weathering of silicate rocks, such as granitic pegmatite veins containing lithium-rich beryl, widely distributed in the upstream area of DLZB. The forward modeling approach, quantifying the contribution fractions of different reservoirs (atmospheric precipitation, silicate, carbonate, and evaporite), indicates that the distinct lithium concentrations in the mainstream (>1 mg/L) and tributaries (<0.1 mg/L) are positively correlated with the ratio of silicate contributions to carbonate contributions, suggesting that dissolved lithium in river waters primarily originates from the weathering and dissolution of silicate rocks. The distinct sources and enrichment mechanisms of lithium in these two salt lakes are attributed to various evolutionary processes, topographical features, hydrological factors, fundamental geological settings, and tectonic histories, despite their spatial proximity. Furthermore, our study highlights the significant role of rivers in the formation of young salt lakes, in addition to geothermal springs.

Keywords

Lithium isotopes / Hydrochemistry / Salt lakes / Enrichment mechanism / Tibetan Plateau

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Fei Xue: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing-original draft, Writing review & Editing. Hongbing Tan: Supervision, Methodology, Conceptualization, Writing-Review & Editing. Xiying Zhang: Funding acquisition, Writing-Review & Editing. M. Santosh: Supervision, Writing-Review & Editing. Peixin Cong: Investigation, Writing-Review & Editing. Lu Ge: Writing-Review & Editing. Chao Li: Writing-Review & Editing. Guohui Chen: Writing-Review & Editing. Yu Zhang: Writing-Review & Editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

We thank the Editor. Vinod Samuel and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped improve our paper. Mr. Junying Yang is thanked for his help in the field. This project was jointly supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP) (Grant No. 2022QZKK0202), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U22A20573), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. B230201014).

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