The contributions of the members of the Department of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrology, University of Warsaw, to the study of the chevkinite-group of minerals (CGM) are described. The range of research topics includes: (i) geochemical and mineralogical studies of natural occurrences of the group, and attempts to relate their chemical composition to host lithology; (ii) detailed analysis of the hydrothermal alteration of CGM in various settings, with the aim of understanding element redistribution and the potential implications for ore formation. An ongoing series of high P-T experiments is providing quantitative information on the pressures, temperatures and melt water conditions under which the alteration assemblages have formed. Various spectroscopic techniques are being used to determine the structure of the CGM and to identify cation distribution in the structures.

The chevkinite group of minerals are REE,Ti-silicates increasingly recognized as widespread accessory phases in a wide range of igneous and metamorphic parageneses. Members of the group are here recorded from five localities in Poland: a two-pyroxene andesite from the Kłodzko-Złoty Stok intrusion, a trachyandesite intrusion north of the Pieniny Mountains, a rapakivi-type granite from the Krasnopol intrusion, an anorthosite from the Suwałki Anorthosite Massif, and nepheline syenite from the Ełk syenite massif. Specific members found are chevkinite-(Ce), perrierite-(Ce) and, potentially, the Al-dominant analogue of perrierite-(Ce). The case is made that chevkinite-group minerals will, through systematic investigation, be found in a wide range of Polish igneous and metamorphic rocks.