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Geological and petrological aspects of Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization in the early Paleoproterozoic Monchegorsk layered mafic-ultramafic complex, Kola Peninsula

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Abstract

The Early Paleoproterozoic Monchegorsk Complex comprises two independent large layered mafic-ultramafic intrusions: the Monchegorsk pluton and the Main Range massif formed about 2.50 and 2.46 Ga ago, respectively. They are composed of similar cumulates, though they differ somewhat in the isotopic parameters of rocks, cumulate stratigraphy and derived from siliceous high-Mg series melts that arose in the same large long-living volcanic center. The economic syngenetic Ni-Cu-PGE sulfide mineralization related to the earlier Monchegorsk pluton is represented by two types of ores. The first type, pertaining to fractionation of the primary melt, is opposite to the reef formed due to injection of a special ore-bearing melt into the solidifying intrusive chamber. The primary magmatic mineralization is largely composed of Ni-Fe-Cu sulfides and Pd-Pt sulfides, bismuthides, and tellurides. Only small PGE and probably chromite occurrences are related to the Main Range massif. In the Mid-Paleoproterozoic (2.0-1.9 Ga), the complex was transformed into a collage of tectonic blocks confined to the regional fault zone. The Monchegorsk pluton was retained better, and only rocks of its southern framework were involved into tectonic and metamorphic reworking with the formation of economic metamorphic low-sulfide PGE mineralization with widespread Pd and Pt telluro-bismuthides, arsenides, stannides, antimonides, and selenides. The ore formation was accompanied by PGE redistribution and segregation of lenticular orebodies with diffuse contours. Thus, the Monchegorsk ore cluster is characterized by juxtaposition of unaltered primary magmatic deposits and those formed as a result of their metamorphism and distinguished from the former by structure and composition. The comparative study of these deposits opens up new possibilities for comprehending ore-forming processes in the same situations.

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  1. Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetnyi per. 35, Moscow, 119017, Russia

    E. V. Sharkov & A. V. Chistyakov

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  1. E. V. Sharkov
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Original Russian Text © E.V. Sharkov, A.V. Chistyakov, 2014, published in Geologiya Rudnykh Mestorozhdenii, 2014, Vol. 56, No. 3, pp. 171–194.

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Sharkov, E.V., Chistyakov, A.V. Geological and petrological aspects of Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization in the early Paleoproterozoic Monchegorsk layered mafic-ultramafic complex, Kola Peninsula. Geol. Ore Deposits 56, 147–168 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1075701514030040

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