Monazite and cassiterite U-Pb dating of the Abu Dabbab rare-metal granite, Egypt: Late Cryogenian metalliferous granite magmatism in the Arabian-Nubian Shield

The Abu Dabbab rare-metal granite in the Eastern Desert of Egypt is a highly-evolved alkali-feldspar granite with transitional magmatic-hydrothermal features. Extreme geochemical fractionation and the associated significant Ta-Sn resource make the Abu Dabbab intrusion an important feature in the metallogenic evolution of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. U-Pb dating by laser ablation sector field (SF)-ICPMS analysis of igneous monazite yields a Concordia age of 644.7 +/- 2.3 Ma, identical within uncertainty to a lower intercept Tera-Wasserburg isochron age of 644.2 +/- 2.3 Ma obtained from hydrothermal cassiterite. Both ages place tight constraints on the timing of magmatic-hydrothermal processes in the Abu Dabbab granite which represents the oldest highly-evolved granite recognized so far in the Pan-African Arabian-Nubian Shield. Thus, the new ages also date the start of a period of late-orogenic metalliferous granite magmatism, when the basement of the Eastern Desert underwent a geodynamic transition from a compressive subduction-collision regime towards orogenic collapse in the late Cryogenian. (C) 2020 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.