An Acid-Based Method for Highly Effective Baddeleyite Separation from Gram-Sized Mafic Rocks

Dating mafic igneous rocks (silica-undersaturated) is difficult for the lack of suitable minerals such as zircons (ZrSiO4) commonly found in the sialic rocks such as granites. In this regard, baddeleyite (ZrO2) has been long recognized as the most important mineral to serve as a geochronometer for dating silica-undersaturated igneous rocks. However, separating baddeleyite is difficult due to its small grain size, typical tabular morphology, and low abundance in samples. The standard water-based separation technique requires kilogram-sized samples and usually has a very low recovery rate. In this study, a new separation method based on the different solubilities of the minerals within HF + HCl + HNO3 reagents was developed to achieve a high recovery of baddeleyite. With ∼19 g of diabase powder, the new method recovers 150–160 baddeleyite grains of 10–100 μm length and 4–50 μm width, an order of magnitude improvement over the water-based separation method, which typically recovers 11–12 similarly sized baddeleyite grains out of the ∼19 g sample. Subsequent secondary ion mass spectrometry U–Pb analyses demonstrate that the baddeleyite grains recovered by the new separation method keep the U–Pb system closed, indicating no Pb loss during acid treatment. Thus, this new method enables the most efficient baddeleyite recovery from gram-sized rocks and is anticipated to greatly contribute to the geochronological study of silica-unsaturated mafic rocks.