Rare earth elements in No. 2 coal of Huangling mine, Huanglong coalfield, China

Rare earth elements (REEs) can provide lots of information relevant to the evolution of source rocks, depositional environment, and epigenetic tectonic activity. In this study, 14 bench samples (including 11 coals, 1parting, 1roof and 1floor) of the No. 2 coal seam from Huangling Mine, Huanglong Coalfield, Ordos Basin, China were collected to study the REE geochemistry. The average concentration of REEs is 44.03 mu g/g, and it is lower than those in coals of the Chinese and world coal. The coals are enriched in light REEs and the LREEs-HREEs have been highly fractionated, with an average (La/Yb)(N) of 11.38. The values of Ce/Ce* are more or less than 1 (with an average 0.92) and indicates that the anomaly of Ce is very slight. However, the values of Eu/Eu* (with an average 7.69 of coal) are distinctly higher than reported data of coals. The extremely high contents of Ba caused the geochemical anomaly of REEs. The Ba2+ was origin from the barium metallogenic belt in Qinling Old-upland.