Electron-microprobe analyses of Russian and Mongolian chevkinite-group minerals from little-known host lithologies, including various metasomatic rocks, quartzolites and an apatite deposit, are presented. The mineral species analysed include chevkinite-(Ce), perrierite-(Ce), polyakovite-(Ce) and Sr- and Zr-rich perrierite-(Ce). Compositional variation in the Sr-rich members of the group is broadly represented by the exchange vector (Fe + Mn + Al + REE) ↔ (Ca + Sr + Ti + Zr). Despite the varied parageneses, the chevkinite-(Ce) compositions are similar to previously published data. Many crystals have strong internal compositional variations, partly produced during primary crystallization and partly during low-temperature hydrothermal alteration.

Sr- and Zr-bearing perrierite-(Ce) occurring in aegirinized syenite pegmatites of the Burpala massif, Russia, is compositionally intermediate between perrierite-(Ce) and hezuolinite and occupies a compositional gap in minerals of the chevkinite group. Its crystal structure has been determined using a single-crystal diffractometer fitted with a CCD detector and MoKα X-ray radiation. The mineral is monoclinic; a = 13.815(1), b = 5.668(1), c = 11.842(1) Å , β = 113.843(3)º, V = 848.18(4) Å3, space group C2/m, Z = 2. The crystal structure was refined with the occupancies [(Ce1.2La1.0Nd0.15) (Sr1.0Ca0.5Na0.15)]4(Zr0.5Fe0.3Mn0.2)(Ti1.3Fe0.7)2Ti2(Si2O7)2O8 on the basis of chemical composition although the allocation of cations to particular sites was performed on the basis of the number of refined electrons in each unique site. The dominance of Zr in the B site links the Burpala perrierite-(Ce) to more Sr-Zr-rich members of the chevkinite group, such as hezuolinite and rengeite. As in all of the perrierite members, there is a distortion of the D site octahedra, which is interpreted as due to the packing of the REE ions.

Chevkinite-(Ce) in a mineralized quartz-epidote metasomatite from the Keivy massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia, underwent at least two stages of low-temperature alteration. In the first, it interacted with hydrothermal fluids, with loss of Ca, Fe, LREE and Si and strong enrichment in Ti. The altered chevkinite was then rimmed and partially replaced by a zone of ferriallanite-(Ce) and davidite-(La), in turn rimmed by a zone of allanite-(Ce) richer in the epidote component. The allanite zone was in turn partially replaced by rutile-titanite-quartz assemblages, the formation of titanite postdating that of rutile. Aeschynite-(Y), aeschynite-(Ce) and REE-carbonates are accessory phases in all zones. The hydrothermal fluids were alkaline, with significant proportions of CO2 and F. At various alteration stages, the Ca, Si ± Al activities in the fluid were high. Formation of the aeschynite is discussed in relation to its stability in broadly similar parageneses; it was a primary phase in the unaltered chevkinite zone whereas in other zones it formed from Nb, Ti, REE and Th released from the major phases.