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Ophiolite-related associations of platinum-group minerals at Rudnaya, western Sayans and Miass, southern Urals, Russia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2018

Andrei Y. Barkov ,
Nadezhda D. Tolstykh ,
Gennadiy I. Shvedov  and
Robert F. Martin
Andrei Y. Barkov*
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory of Industrial and Ore Mineralogy, Cherepovets State University, 5 Lunacharsky Avenue, 162600 Cherepovets, Russia
Nadezhda D. Tolstykh
Affiliation:
V.S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, 3 Avenue “Prospekt Koptyuga”, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
Gennadiy I. Shvedov
Affiliation:
Institute of Mining, Geology and Geotechnology, Siberian Federal University, 95 Avenue Prospekt im. gazety “Krasnoyarskiy Rabochiy”, 660025 Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Robert F. Martin
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, 3450 University Street, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0E8, Canada
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

We describe similar assemblages of minerals found in two placers in Russia, both probably derived from an ophiolitic source. The first is located along the River Rudnaya in the western Sayan province, Krasnoyarskiy kray, and the second pertains to the Miass placer zone, Chelyabinsk oblast, in the southern Urals. The platinum-group element (PGE) mineralization in both cases is mostly (at least 80%) represented by alloy minerals in the system Ru–Os–Ir, in the order of occurrence osmium, ruthenium and iridium. The remainder consists of Pt–Fe alloys and species of PGE sulfides, arsenides, sulfarsenides, etc. The associated olivine and amphiboles are supermagnesian, and the chromian spinel has a high Cr# value. The observed enrichment in Ru, typical of an ophiolitic source, may be due to high-temperature hydrothermal equilibration and mobilization in the ophiolite, as is the enrichment in Mg and Cr. Low-temperature replacement of the alloys led to the development of laurite, sulfoarsenides and arsenides. Some placer grains in both suites reveal unusual phases of sulfo-arsenoantimonides of Ir–Rh, e.g. the unnamed species (Rh,Ir)SbS and (Cu,Ni)1+x(Ir,Rh)1–xSb, where x = 0.2, and rhodian tolovkite, (Ir,Rh)SbS. Two series of natural solid-solutions appear to occur in the tolovkite-type phases. Among the oddities in the Rudnaya suite are globules of micrometric PGE sulfides, crystallites of platinum-group minerals, amphibole, and chalcopyrite bearing skeletal micrometric monosulfide-like compounds (Cu,Pt,Rh)S and (Pd,Cu)S1–x. Pockets of fluxed evolved melt seem to have persisted well below the solidus of the host Pt3Fe-type alloy.

Keywords

Rudnaya placer mineralsMiass placer mineralsRussiaophiolitic source-rocksRu–Os–Ir alloysreplacement phenomenahypermagnesian compositionsmicroglobular inclusionscrystallites of platinum-group minerals
Type
Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 82 , Special Issue 3: Special Issue dedicated to the work and memory of Professor Hazel M. Prichard (1954–2017) , June 2018 , pp. 515 - 530
Copyright
Copyright © Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2018 

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Footnotes

Associate Editor: John Bowles

This paper is published as part of a thematic set in memory of Professor Hazel M. Prichard

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