A felsic meta‑igneous source for Li‑F‑rich peraluminous granites: insights from the Variscan Velay dome (French Massif Central) and implications for rare‑metal magmatism

The Velay anatectic dome in the Variscan French Massif Central exposes a low-pressure–high-temperature metamorphic sequence, which represents an ideal natural laboratory for documenting the behavior of rare-metals and fluxing elements during crustal melting. We investigated the silicate and bulk-rock geochemistry of sub- to suprasolidus metapelites and orthogneisses, as well as related granites, and performed forward thermodynamically constrained geochemical modeling to quantify the respective effects of melting pressure, temperature, H2O activity, and protolith composition on the Li and F contents of granitic melts. We find that biotite compositions are good proxies of melt compositional evolutions during prograde melting. The crystallization of peritectic cordierite at low pressure (< 5 kbar) and “water-fluxed” melting both inhibit the Li enrichment of anatectic melts. Metapelite-derived melts consistently show modest Li–F contents, and a decoupling is observed as melts with the highest Li concentrations (~ 200–400 ppm) are produced below 750 °C, whereas F-richest melts (~ 0.2–0.4 wt%) are produced above 750 °C near the biotite-out isograd. Peraluminous orthogneiss anatexis can generate a melt that is concomitantly enriched in both F (~ 0.3–1 wt%) and Li (~ 600–1350 ppm) at relatively low temperature (< 750 °C), which can evolve toward rare-metal granite compositions (~ 10,000 ppm Li; ~ 2 wt% F) after 80–90 wt% of fractional crystallization. Melting of felsic meta-igneous rocks followed by magmatic differentiation is thus a viable mechanism to form Li-F-rich rare-metal granites and pegmatites, providing a direct link between protracted crust recycling and rare-metal magmatism in late-orogenic settings.