Geochemical exploration on the stream sediments of Gabal El Mueilha area, central Eastern Desert, Egypt: An overview on the rare metals

El Mueilha area consists of post-collision granitic rocks intruding Pan-Afr ican metasediments, metavolcanics and granodiorites. Tin mineralization in Gabal El Mueilha is either of vein type or disseminated in the greisenized and albitized parts of the granitic rocks. Cassiterite and wolframite-beari ng quartz veins also characterize a small intrusion of muscovite granite at El Mueilha tin mine area. Detailed geochemical prospecting for the rare me tals Sn, Nb, Be, Li, U, Th and some other trace elements was carried out at Gabal El Mueilha area using stream sediments survey. Sixty-seven stream se diment samples were collected from the main drainage patterns of the study area. Statistical parameters were calculated for the analyzed elements. The sought elements Sn, Nb, Be and Li have relatively high background values i n the studied sediments. This may reflect the role of the pathfinder elemen ts (Nb, Be and Li) during secondary dispersion survey for Sn mineralization . Geochemical maps were constructed to delineate anomalous areas with abnorma lly high rare metal contents. The anomalous Sn, Nb and Be areas are mainly encountered in the main stream draining the mineralized zones of El Mueilha tin mine and near the SW albitized parts of the post-collision granite. Co rrelation coefficient matrices show significant positive relation between S n and the rare metals group (Nb, Rb and Li) at 99% significant level. R-mod e factor analysis for the concerned elements yields five factor-model.