Zircon and monazite texture and composition as fingerprints to establish their provenance in rare metal granite ore concentrates

[EN] The Penouta mine is currently the only active mine in Europe where Ta and Nb concentrates are obtained as a coproduct of Sn concentrates. After several years reprocessing the old tailings dumps, the company Strategic Minerals Spain S.L. (SMS) obtained in 2022 the mining concession license of the primary deposit, consisting of an albitic leucogranite with Sn-Ta-Nb mineralization (Llorens González et al., 2017). The flowsheet of the processing plant mainly consists of classification, gravimetric concentration and high-intensity magnetic separation to obtain Sn and Ta-Nb concentrates (Nava et al., 2020). In addition to Sn and Ta-Nb oxides, other highly accessory heavy minerals are also concentrated, such as zircon and monazite, for which there is still little information. This contribution aims to show preliminary textural and compositional variations of these non-ore minerals, which can be useful to determine its granitic or mineralized metamorphic host provenance.