Abstract: The rare earth(RE) in weathered crust ores mainly exists as ion-exchangeable phase, approximately 80%. The correlation analysis on partition of 376 samples in ion-exchangeable phase from weathered crust ores was conducted. The results show that partition both among heavy RE elements and light RE elements with high partition appears positive correlation, but partition sums between the heavy RE elements and the light RE elements appear close negative correlation obviously. Clear negative correlations exist between the light RE elements (except Ce) and yttrium(Y). Matrix of correlation analysis on this partition can be divided into three zones. The correlated coefficient variation from negative to positive in zones B and C occurs at Gd, so does that in zones B and A (except Ce, Eu, and Sm), suggesting that RE elements can be divided into two groups with Gd as border. This phenomenon is called Gadolinium-broken effect.

Key words: weathered crust; ore; rare earth partition; correlation analysis