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Gold and silver in PGE–Cu–Ni and PGE ores of the Noril’sk deposits, Russia

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Abstract

Gold and silver contents in Noril’sk ore are controlled by the amount of sulphides and bulk Cu grade. Relative concentrations, re-calculated to 100 % sulphide, depend on type of ore: they are higher for disseminated ore than for massive ore and are the highest for low-sulphide platinum ore. Gold occurs mainly as high-fineness Au–Ag alloy in pyrrhotite-rich ore, whereas silver enters chalcopyrite mainly as solid solution. Increase in Cu grade correlates with an increase in the concentration of silver in chalcopyrite. Gold and silver form discrete minerals such as Au–Cu alloys, Au–Ag alloys, tellurides, sulphides, selenides, sulphobismuthides, Ag and Ag–Pd chlorides in Cu-rich ores; they also enter the structures of complex platinum-group minerals. The Au–Ag mineralisation is related to the post-magmatic hydrothermal stage under temperature conditions of 350–50 °C. Silver entered crystallizing chalcopyrite in solid solution in the late-magmatic stage, while all of the gold and the remainder of the silver and some platinum-group elements were transported predominantly as chloride and hydrosulphide complexes in hydrothermal fluids.

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Acknowledgments

We are enormously grateful to our analysts at the microprobes and the electron microscopes: I. P. Laputina, G. N. Muravitskaya, M. N. Botova, T. I. Golovanova, S. E. Borisovsky, M. V.Kuznetsova, L. A. Samoshnikova and I. G. Griboedova. Fluid inclusion study was facilitated by T. Krylova at IGEM RAS. The publication would not be possible without help from Marina Yudovskaya and Tony Naldrett. The assistance of I. B. Ignat’eva, N. G. Serova and A. V. Grigor’eva with graphics and manuscript arrangement is greatly appreciated. We thank L. J. Cabri and an anonymous reviewer for their critical and helpful comments and suggestions, which greatly improved the manuscript. Chusi Li and Bernd Lehmann are thanked for thorough editorial handling.

We acknowledge financial support from the Russian Scientific Foundation (grant 14-17-00693) and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 14-05-00448).

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  1. Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Mineralogy, Petrography and Geochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences (IGEM RAS), Staromonetny 35, Moscow, 119017, Russia

    Sergey F. Sluzhenikin & Andrey V. Mokhov

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  1. Sergey F. Sluzhenikin
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Sluzhenikin, S.F., Mokhov, A.V. Gold and silver in PGE–Cu–Ni and PGE ores of the Noril’sk deposits, Russia. Miner Deposita 50, 465–492 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-014-0543-2

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