Characterisation and Genesis of Sapphires from the Yenya-U Area, Thabeikkyin Township, Mandalay Region, Myanmar

Khin Mar Phyu*, Khin Zaw, Terrence Patrick Mernagh, Thu Zar Aung

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    1 Citation (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The Yenya-U area in the Mandalay region of central Myanmar hosts two primary sapphire deposits, at Kyauk-tagar and Kyar-gaung. The sapphires form disseminated crystals within syenite pegmatite and nepheline syenite, respectively. Kyar-gaung is a source of relatively large crystals (up to 12 g) that are translucent to opaque, while Kyauk-tagar produces fine-quality vivid-blue sapphires in smaller sizes (up to 0.4 g). Alluvial deposits in the region yield high-quality sapphires of various colours (including colourless, yellow, purple, pink, greenish blue and blue), as well as quartz, topaz, spinel, garnet, zircon, tourmaline and fluorite. The studied Yenya-U sapphires contained solid inclusions of albite, biotite, graphite, melanophlogite and diaspore. In addition, pennantite is reported here for the first time as an inclusion in corundum. CO2-rich fluid inclusions were commonly observed in most of the sapphires. Trace-element analyses of the sapphires are consistent with a metamorphicmetasomatic origin, mostly accompanied by desilicification processes.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)802-815
    Number of pages14
    JournalJournal of Gemmology
    Volume37
    Issue number8
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021

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