Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Hg- and Cd-Bearing Pd, Pt, Au, and Ag Minerals in Sulfide-Bearing Mafic and Ultramafic Rocks of the Yoko-Dovyren Intrusion in the Baikalides of the Northern Baikal Area

  • Published:
Geochemistry International Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Hg and Cd are rare chemical elements found in magmatic PGE and Au mineralization and typical of this mineralization in the Late Riphean Yoko-Dovyren plagioperidotite–troctolite–gabbronorite intrusion hosted in the Baikalides of the Baikal area. The paper discusses variations in the composition, associations, and distribution traits of the Hg- and Cd-bearing Pt, Pd, Au, and Ag minerals. Many of the precious-metal minerals are Pt, Pd, and Au chalcogenides and intermetallic compounds of postmagmatic genesis and occur as single crystals and stringers in sulfides and silicate matrix and at their contacts. The minerals were formed with the participation of fluids from the crystallizing Fe–Cu–Ni sulfide melts. They are constrained to the central part of the intrusion and found in sulfide-bearing plagiolherzolite (PL) in the lower part of the intrusion, in sulfide-bearing pegmatoid troctolite (T) in the bottom portion of the troctolite unit, and in sulfide-bearing pegmatoid anorthosite (A) in the top part of the troctolite unit. From PL to T and further to A, the content and diversity of the Hg-bearing minerals remarkably increase, with Hg distributed in these minerals very unevenly, and with Cd-bearing minerals identified only in A. The leading Hg concentrators in T and A are pneumatolytic (fluid–metasomatic) moncheite and, particularly, later telargpalite (Pd,Ag)3(Te,Pd,Hg), which contains up to 11 wt % Hg. The latter mineral is sometimes found in association with Hg-electrum, kustelite, and potarite. Potarite in T is Pb-rich, and this mineral in A is Pb-free. Appreciable Hg concentrations in precious-metal minerals in the Yoko-Dovyren intrusion suggest that these minerals crystallized in a closed system at high temperatures. Potarite content in A is much higher, and Hg concentration in telargpalite in A is notably lower (2.9 wt % Hg on average) than in this mineral in T (5.9 wt % Hg on average). The potarite might have been produced by epigenetic serpentinization processes (low-grade metamorphism) at the expense of the material of pneumatolytic Hg-bearing telatgpalite, kotulskite, and zvyagentsivite. This corresponds to specifics in Hg distribution in the telatgpalite, kotulskite, and zvyagentsivite in T and A and much higher intensity of metamorphism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 7.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  1. Yu. V. Amelin, L. A. Neymark, E. Yu. Rytsk, and A. L. Nemchin, “Enriched Nd–Sr–Pb isotopic signatures in the Dovyren layered intrusion (easthern Siberia, Russia): evidence for source contamination by ancient upper-crust material,” Chem. Geol. 129, 39–69 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. A. A. Ariskin, Yu. A. Kostitsyn, E. G. Konnikov, L. V. Danyushevsky, S. Meffre, G. S. Nikolaev, A. McNeill, E. V. Kislov, and D. A. Orsoev, “Geochronology of the Dovyren intrusive complex, northwestern Baikal Area, Russia, in the Neoproterozoic,” Geochem. Int. 51 (11), 859–875 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. A. Ariskin, L. Danyushevsky, G. Nikolaev, E. Kislov, M. Fiorentini, A. McNeil, Y. Kostitsyn, K. Goemann, and A. Malyshev, “The Dovyren Intrusive Complex (Southern Siberia, Russia): insights into dynamics of an open magma chamber with implication for parental magma origin, composition, and Cu–Ni–PGE fertility,” Lithos, 302–303, 242–262 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. A. A. Ariskin, G. S. Nikolaev, L. V. Danyushevsky, M. Fiorentini, E.V. Kislov, and I. V. Pshenitsyn, “Geochemical evidence for the fractionation of iridium group elements at the early stages of crystallisation of the Dovyren magmas (northern Baikal area, Russia),” Russ. Geol. Geophys. 59(5), 459–471 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. M. E. Fleet, C. M. de Almeida, and N. Angeli, “Botryoidal platinum, palladium and potarite from the Bom Susseco stream, Minas Gerais, Brazil,” Can. Mineral. 40, 341–355 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. S. A. Gurulev, Geology and Conditions of Formation of the Yoko-Dovyren Gabbro–Peridotite Massif (Nauka, Moscow, 1965) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  7. J. Jedwab, D. Badaut, and P. Beaunier, “Discovery of palladium–platinum–gold –mercury bitumen in the Boss Mine, Clark county, Nevada,” Econ. Geol. 94, 1163–1172 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. E. V. Kislov, E. G. Konnikov, D. A. Orsoev, E. V. Pushkarev, and L. K. Voronina, “Chlorine in the genesis of the low-sulfide pge mineralization in the Ioko-Dovyrenskii layered massif,” Geochem. Int. 35 (5), 455–461 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  9. E. G. Konnikov, E. V. Kislov, and D. A. Orsoev, E. G. Ioko-Dovyren, E. V. Kislov, and D. A. Orsoev, “Yoko-Dovyren layered pluton and related mineralization, Northern Baikal region,” Geol. Ore Deposits 36 (6), 545–553 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  10. A. V. Lavrenchuk, “Cumulation–compaction model of the formation of layered intrusions by the example of the Yoko–Dovyren massif,” in Actual Problems of the Ore Formation and Metallogeny (GEO, Novosibirsk, 2006), pp. 132–133 [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  11. T. Moreno, H. M. Prichard, R. Lunar, S. Monterrubio, and P. Fischer, “Formation of a secondary platinum-group mineral assemblage in chromitites from the Herbeira ultramafic massif in Cabo Ortegal, NW Spain,” Eur. J. Mineral. 11, 363–378 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Naldrett, A. J. Magmatic Sulfide Deposits. Geology, Geochemistry and Exploration (Springer, Berlin–Heidelberg–New York, 2004).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  13. D. A. Orsoev, “Yoko-Dovyren dunite–troctolite–gabbroic massif and its platinum potential,” in Noble Metal Mineralization in the layered ultrabasite–basite massifs of the southern Siberian Platform (Parallel, Novosibirsk, 2008), pp. 89–194 [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  14. D. A. Orsoev, N. S. Rudashevsky, Yu. L. Kretser, and E. G. Konnikov, “Precious metal mineralization in low-sulfide ores of the Ioko–Dovyren layered massif, northern Baikal region,” Dokl. Earth Sci. 390 (2), 545–549 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  15. L. M. Parfenov, G. Badarch, N. A. Berzin, D. H. Hwang, A. I. Khanchuk, M. I. Kuzmin, W. J. Nokleberg, A. A. Obolenskiy, M. Ogasawara, A. V. Prokopiev, S. M. Rodionov, A. P. Smelov, and H. Yan, Chapter 1 (Introduction), Metallogenesis and Tectonics of Northeast Asia, Ed. by W. J. Nokleberg U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap., No. 1765, pp. 1–36 (2010).

  16. H. M. Prichard, R. A. Ixer, R. A. Lord, J. Maynard, and N. Williams, “Assemblages of platinum-group minerals and sulfides in silicate lithologies and chromite-rich rocks within the Shetland ophiolite,” Can. Mineral. 32, 271–294 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  17. E. M. Spiridonov, “Ore-magmatic systems of the Noril’sk ore field,” Russ. Geol. Geophys. 51 (9), 1059–1077 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. E. M. Spiridonov, V. M. Ladygin, O. N. Simonov, G. F. Anastasenko, E. A. Kulagov, V. A. Lyul’ko, E. V. Sereda, and V. K. Stepanov, Metavolcanic Rocks of the Prehnite–Pumpelyite and Zeolite Facies of the Trap Formation of the Norilsk District, Siberian Platform (Mosk. Univ., Moscow, 2000) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  19. E. M. Spiridonov, E. A. Kulagov, A. A. Serova, I. M. Kulikova, N. N. Korotaeva, E. V. Sereda, I. N. Tushentsova, S. N. Belyakov, and N. N. Zhukov, “Genetic Pd, Pt, Au, Ag, and Rh mineralogy in Noril’sk sulfide ores,” Geol. Ore Deposits 57 (5), 402–432 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. E. M. Spiridonov, “Low-grade metamorphism is the ore-preparatory, ore-generating, ore-transforming process,” Geodynamic Setting and thermodynamic conditions of regiona metamorphism in the Precambrian and Phanerozoic (IGGD, St. Petersburg, 2017), pp. 166–168.

    Google Scholar 

  21. E. M. Spiridonov, A. A. Ariskin, E. V. Kislov, D. A. Orsoev, N. N. Korotaeva, G. S. Nikolaev, E. V. Putintseva, and V. O. Yapaskurt, “Three genetic types of noble metal minerals in plagioclase lherzolites of the lower parts of the Yoko-Dovyren intrusion in the Baikalides of the Northern Baikal region,” Ultranafite–mafite Complexes: Geology, Structure, and Ore Potential: Proceedings of 5 th International Conference, Gremyachinsk, Russia, 2017, Ed. by E. V. Kislov (Buryat. Univ., Ulan-Ude, 2017), pp. 277–279 [in Russian].

  22. E. M. Spiridonov, D. A. Orsoev, E. V. Kislov, A. A. Ariskin, and V. O. Yapaskurt, “Palladohermanide Pd2Ge, nilsenite PdCu3, and associated minerals of sulfide-bearing anorthosites of the critical horizon of the Yoko-Dovyren hyperbasite–basite intrusion in the Northern Baikal Region, in Main Problems in Theory of Endogenous Ore Deposits: New Horizons” All-Russian Conference dedicated to the 120th anniversary of A. G. Betekhtin (IGEM RAS, Moscow, 2017b), pp. 57–61 [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  23. E. M. Spiridonov, A. A. Ariskin, E. V. Kislov, N. N. Korotaeva, G. S. Nikolaev, I. V. Pshenitsyn, and V. O. Yapaskurt,” Laurite and Ir-osmium from plagioclase lherzolite of the Yoko–Dovyren mafic–ultramafic pluton, Northern Baikal Region,” Geol. Ore Deposits 60 (3), 210–219 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. A. A. Yaroshevskii, S. V. Bolikhovskaya, and E. V. Koptev-Dvornikov, “Geochemical structure of the Yoko-Dovyren layered dunite–troctolite–gabbro–norite massif, Northern Baikal Area,” Geochem. Int. 44 (10), 953–964 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was supported by Russian Science Foundation (Grant 16-17-10129) and was conducted using equipment purchased under the Development Program for the Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Moscow State University, Leninskie gory, 119234, Moscow, Russia

    E. M. Spiridonov, A. A. Ariskin, N. N. Korotaeva & V. O. Yapaskurt

  2. Geological Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 670047, Ulan-Ude, Russia

    D. A. Orsoev & E. V. Kislov

  3. Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry (GEOKhI), Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Ariskin & G. S. Nikolaev

Authors
  1. E. M. Spiridonov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. D. A. Orsoev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A. A. Ariskin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. G. S. Nikolaev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. E. V. Kislov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. N. N. Korotaeva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. V. O. Yapaskurt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to E. M. Spiridonov.

Additional information

Translated by E. Kurdyukov

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Spiridonov, E.M., Orsoev, D.A., Ariskin, A.A. et al. Hg- and Cd-Bearing Pd, Pt, Au, and Ag Minerals in Sulfide-Bearing Mafic and Ultramafic Rocks of the Yoko-Dovyren Intrusion in the Baikalides of the Northern Baikal Area. Geochem. Int. 57, 42–55 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702919010105

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702919010105

Keywords:

Search

Navigation