Deposit characteristics and potential resources of silicon material for high-purity quartz of muscovite-pegmatite-granite type in Ningdu, Jiangxi Province

High−purity quartz, exhibiting exceptional physical and chemical properties, has emerged as a critical raw material for strategic industries. China, being a major consumer of high−purity quartz, currently relies on imports for all its high−end products in this domain. The primary challenges faced by China in the realm of high−end high−purity quartz lie in the scarcity of resources with superior quality silica as raw materials and the dearth of advanced processing technologies. High−quality and high−purity silica are crucial prerequisites for processing high−end, high−purity quartz. Therefore, China urgently needs to break through the bottleneck of high−quality resources. By conducting a comparative analysis with alaskite−type high−purity quartz material from the Spruce Pine region in the USA, we have discovered siliceous materials suitable for producing high−purity quartz in the Ningdu County of Jiangxi Province, located west of the Wuyi Mountains. Consequently, it can be inferred that prospecting in this region offers favorable conditions for obtaining granitic siliceous materials required for manufacturing high−purity quartz. Based on the study of metallogenic geological background and deposit geology, mineral characteristics of ores, quartz inclusions, gas−liquid inclusions composition in quartz, rock geochemistry, impurity elements in quartz and major lattice impurity elements were investigated to discuss the ore genesis and evaluate their resource potential. The Ningdu muscovite granitic pegmatite is classified as subalkaline peraluminous granite with a high abundance of K−feldspar. The K content exceeds that of Na, exhibiting enrichment in large ion lithophile elements while displaying low concentrations of high field strength elements and rare earth elements. Additionally, Eu anomalies are observed both positively and negatively. Gas−liquid inclusions are the predominant type of inclusions found in quartz, constituting approximately 1.69% of the total area, with a small number of mineral inclusions such as muscovite present. The impurity elements Mg, Fe, and Li exhibit similarities to Spruce Pine quartz in alaskite, while the overall content of impurity elements is relatively low at an average value of 618.03×10⁻⁶. Within the quartz lattice structure, Al, Li, and Ti are identified as the main impurity elements with a very low total content (89.82×10⁻⁶), whereas SiO₂ accounts for over 99.99% of quartz composition. This high−purity silicon material possesses excellent quality and exhibits significant potential as indicated by its abundant predicted resource quantity. Ningdu muscovite granitic pegmatite is situated within the middle−deep root zone of Huitong pluton and represents an S−type granite within the Caledonian orogenic belt that evolved from light−colored granitic magma enriched with feldspar and quartz during the same period as pluton’s evolution process. These research findings hold great significance for comparative studies on similar ore deposits within western Wuyi region, and provide valuable guidance for prospecting activities targeting high−purity quartz silicon materials across China.