Platinum group minerals from the deluvial placer of the Veresovka river, Veresovoborsky dunite-clinopyroxenite massif (the Middle Urals)

S. Yu. Stepanov, R. S. Palamarchuk, D. A. Varlamov, A. V. Kozlov, D. A. Khanin, A. V. Antonov

Zapiski RMO (Proceedings of the Russian Mineralogical Society). 2018. V. 147. N 5. P. 40-60

https://doi.org/10.30695/zrmo/2018.1475.03

Full text is available on eLIBRARY.RU

Language: Russian

Abstract

For the first time data on platinum group minerals (PGM) from the deluvial placer of the Veresovka River are given, their root source are dunites of the northern part of the Veresovoborsky massif. There have been identified, among minerals typical for this type of placers, Pt-Fe minerals, Os-Ir-(Ru) intermetallides, kashinite, bowieite, laurite, erlychmanite, and Ir-Rh thiospinels. There were revealed also, rare for platinum placers associated with the zonal clinopyroxenite-dunite massifs, but widely distributed in the studied placer: irarsite, hollingworthite, zvyagintsevite, potarite, cupperite, ferhodsite, and some unnamed Pb-Òå minerals. Xingzhongite has been detected there for the first time in placers of the Ural Platinum Belt. For all these minerals their morphological features are characterized in detail, together with their chemical composition determined by X-ray spectral analysis. Their genetic relationships are characterized taking into account total obtained data. This comprehensive study of PGM individuals and aggregates is used as the base to distinguish parageneses in their association.

Key words: Ural Platinum Belt, Veresovoborsky massif, platinum placers, isoferroplatinum, Pt-Fe minerals, osmium, iridium, kashinite, erlichmanite, tetraferroplatinum, potarite, zvyagintsevite, xingzhongite, parageneses of minerals.