Distribution: In Russia, in Siberia, from the Billeekh [TL], Tsepochechnyi, and Ust-Khann’ya
intrusives, Vilyui River Basin; in the Nizhefokinskii intrusion, Norilsk district; from the Ukachilkan
tin deposit, northeastern Sakha; and at the Tolbachik fissure volcano, Kamchatka Peninsula. In a
mud volcano on Bulla Island, Caspian Sea. At Kyzylcheku, Karamazar, Tajikistan. From Getang,
Guizhou Province, and in the Lianhuashan tungsten deposit, Guangdong Province, China.

The native aluminum discovered in the Lianhuashan tungsten deposit, Guangdong.
He-Shuahgmei; Cao-Fenyuan; Liu-Yanzhong
Dizhi yu Kantan = Geology and Prospecting. 26; 9, Pages 32-34. 1990.

Abstract: Native aluminum was discovered in quartz dioritic porphyrite and altered quartz sandstone in the Lianhuashan tungsten mining district. It has an irregular grain shape, usually 0.02-0.04mm in size and white in colour, and occurs as an impregnation ore in gangue minerals.

Discovery of native aluminum in the oxidation zone in Getang, Anlong County, Guizhou Province.
Jiang-Xinshun; Li-Wenkang; Zhang-Shuxin; Meng-Fanyi
Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. 11; Pages 79-86. 1985.

Abstract: Native aluminum was discovered in the jarositized quartzitic rock of replacement origin at Getang, Anlong County, Guizhou Province. The bulk of the native aluminum occurs in cracks in and along boundaries of jarosite, and only a small amount is present in and along the grain boundaries of quartz. It is frequently associated with native copper and sulfur which have replaced jarosite. Electron-probe analysis shows that it contains 97.811% of aluminium, and electron diffraction and X-ray powder method indicate that a (sub o) is 4.0507Aa. So it is considered as native aluminum.

Nevertheless, native Al has been reported in a wide variety of geological environments: hydrocarbon-rich mud in Azerbaijan, serpentine in Italy, volcanic fumarole in Russia, and now your chinese references - two more completely distinct environments.

Things to bear in mind about the "reactivity" of aluminium:

1. Although it is true that the electrode potential of coating-free Al metal is very positive, and that the formation of corundum from Al and oxygen is very exothermic, it should be borne in mind that the partial pressure of oxygen in deep-sourced igneous materials starts VERY VERY low.

2. At high temperatures, Al is not only volatile itself, but also (under reducing conditions) forms a gaseous suboxide Al2O. Theformation of the latter is a counterindication for using alumina as a ceramic material under reducing conditions at high temperature, since the Al2O3 can gradually become weak and porous as Al2O evaporates out from it.

3. The high entropy of gaseous phases stabilises them relatively at high T, which therefore makes low oxidation states (0 and +1) of aluminium more favourable relative to Al3+ in corundum.

I suspect that vapour transport of Al and Al2O followed by reverse disproportionation of the latter on cooling is important in producing the metal at Tolbachik.

I agree completely that if any of this material was left on a mine dump for a few centuries, there would be little native Al remaining. However, the host samples for Al are all, as far as I know, recently obtained drillcore or fresh fumarole deposits.

Room-temperature thermodynamic data should be used with great caution in predicting the occurrence or not of mineral phases, which may have formed under very different equilibrium or disequilibrium conditions, and persist only through slow kinetics of re-equilibration. Just look at the carbon polymorphs:

graphite is the stablest form of pure C at ambient , and is common, as predicted.

diamond should not occur in the crust, but does, because it is possible to get it to the surface and cool it fast enough to prevent inversion to graphite.

lonsdaleite, chaoite (if real), and buckyballs do not have stability fields, are ALWAYS metastable, but nevertheless occur in shocked or otherwise disequilibrated material.

And all of these forms ought to burn to CO2 in a 20% oxygen atmosphere, but the kinetics is slow unless you help them!

*Aluminum Rare species collections.
Al, A native metallic element.
Aluminum has now been found in several localities in Russia and elsewhere. It has been found in diatremes in Kazakhstan and a skarn deposit at Taror, Tajikistan and in epithermal veins at Nikitovka Mercury deposit, Ukraine. Also found in a lunar rock. Initially there were many in Russia and elsewhere who felt that native aluminum was reported in error. Even the late and highly venerated Michael Fleischer commented “This seems extremely improbable from thermodynamic considerations.” Translating this into the common vernacular it means “No fu----- way!” Dmitry Belakovsky of Moscow thought he had discovered native aluminum in some charoite samples he was working on. It turned out however that the aluminum was from the aluminum foil that the miners had used to wrap the explosives they were using when blasting the charoite out of the deposit. This and other reasons made it difficult for many researchers to believe that native aluminum had actually been discovered. Dimitry assures me however that he has seen some specimens of aluminum in matrix that are certainly authentic.
1 American Mineralogist, Vol. 65, p205, 1980.
Russia
Southern Ural Mountains, Orenburg Oblast, Kumak Deposit. Material was found in quartz veins. The best specimen was a 3 cm piece of gray white quartz with a thin sheet of native aluminum measuring about 5 mm across.1 The specimen is in the Fersman Museum in Moscow.
1 Dmitry Belakovsky, personal communication 2002.