PLATINUM-GROUP MINERAL ASSEMBLAGE OF THE PRIZHIMNY CREEK (Koryak Highland)
A.V. Kutyrev1, E.G. Sidorov1, A.V. Antonov2, V.M. Chubarov1
1Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, bulv. Piipa 9, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii, 683006, Russia
2A.P. Karpinsky Russian Geological Research Institute, Srednii pr. 74, St. Petersburg, 199106, Russia
Keywords: Platinum-group minerals, placer deposits, Pt-Fe alloys, Ural-Alaskan-type massifs, Koryak-Kamchatka belt
Abstract
In the alluvial deposits of the Prizhlimny Creek (southern part of the Koryak Highland), grains of platinum-group minerals are found along with gold. We have established that the grains are native platinum (Pt, Fe) containing Cu (up to 5 wt.%), Os (up to 8 wt.%), and Rh (up to 2 wt.%). Inclusions in the platinum are native osmium (the content of Ir impurity reaches 12 wt.%, the average content being 0.2-4 wt.%), an unnamed intermetallic compound of composition PtRh, sulfides and arsenides of PGE (cooperite, laurite, malanite, cuproiridsite, cuprorhodsite, sperrylite, hollingworthite, unnamed compounds PdS, (Ir,Ru)S2, (Ir,Pt)S2), Cu, and Fe (bornite, chalcopyrite), chromite, and Cr-magnetite. Replacement of native-osmium crystals by compound IrO2 is described. It has been established that this compound formed during oxidation accompanied by the replacement of isoferroplatinum by native platinum. The data obtained agree with the results of study of platinum-group mineral assemblages from placers localized in weakly eroded Ural-Alaskan-type massifs whose apical parts formed under high oxygen activity conditions. Clinopyroxenites of the Prizhimny massif are considered to be the potential source of PGE.
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