This book offers a detailed description of the geology, geochemistry and deposit model of key deposits in the Mianning-Dechang REE belt in West Sichuan, one of the most important REE belts in the world and genetically related to the Himalayan carbonatite-alkaline complex, helping readers to understand the ore-forming process of carbonatite-related REE deposits. The carbonatite-related REE deposits provide more than 90% of worldwide LREE resources. Thanks to the deposit model presented here, it can serve as an important guidebook for REE exploration and will be of interest to various members of industry and academia, including those who work in exploration, research and teaching. The methods for inclusion studies and petrochemistry discussed represent the cutting edge of analytical techniques in geology.

Yuling Xie is an experienced University-based economic geologist with more than 25 years of teaching, research and field practice. Her core skills include mineral deposit genesis, structural geology and field studies, and applied geochemistry and mineralogy. She has gained international reputation in the field of REE deposit, fluid inclusion, and specialises in the integration of fluid inclusion studies with mineral deposit models. She has worked on a range of mineral deposit types including: carboniatite-hosed REE deposits, porphyry copper systems, lode-gold deposits, epithermal silver and polymetallic systems, hydrothermal zinc-lead deposits, andcopper-iron skarns. Research outcomes from her research have been presented at various national and international conferences and published in journals in both Chinese and English.