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The calculated solubility of platinum and gold in oxygen-saturated fluids and the genesis of platinum-palladium and gold mineralization in the unconformity-related uranium deposits

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Abstract

Thermodynamic calculations on the solubility of platinum and gold indicate that saline (1 m NaCl), fluids saturated with atmospheric oxygen can transport geologically realistic concentrations of platinum-group-elements (PGE), gold, and uranium as chloro-complexes. A number of calculations involving fluid-rock interaction suggest that the oxygen-saturated fluids flowing through rocks containing quartz, muscovite, kaolinite, magnetite and hematite, initially oxidize any magnetite to hematite, allowing subsequent batches of ore fluids to retain their high oxidation state. During their migration through the aquifer, the oxidizing fluids would move the oxidation-reduction interface deeper into the aquifer, leaching and redepositing platinum and gold. The redissolution of earlier precipitated platinum and gold depends on the fluid/ rock ratio and the associated increase in the oxidation state. Therefore, lowering of fluid/rock ratios and/or mixing of the oxidized fluids with a large amount of reduced fluid will precipitate uranium, PGE, and gold. It is suggested that this model can explain the genesis of gold and PGE mineralization in the unconformity-related uranium deposits of the Alligator Rivers Uranium Field in the Northern Territory, Australia.

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  1. Gold Research Group, Geology Department, James Cook University of N. Queensland, Townsville

    S. Jaireth

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Jaireth, S. The calculated solubility of platinum and gold in oxygen-saturated fluids and the genesis of platinum-palladium and gold mineralization in the unconformity-related uranium deposits. Mineral. Deposita 27, 42–54 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00196079

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