Prospects for the ore content of listvenites in the North Caucasus (the Elbrus region)

Abstract

Relevance. Alpine-type ultrabasites of the North Caucasus are classified as regional producers of noble metals (Au, Pt, Pd, Os, Ir, Ru, Rh). Products of destruction and processing of ultrabasites (black shales, weathering crusts, basal levels, placers) often contain anomalous sub-commercial concentrations of these metals. Near-contact metasomatites, represented by listvenites, talcites, talc-carbonate amphibole-chlorite-carbonate, quartz-carbonate, anchiquartz and anchicarbonate rocks, are classified as ultrabasite derivatives. Ultrabasite derivatives are anomalously enriched in noble metals (Au, Pt, Pd), which in some cases are of industrial interest. One of such brightest representatives of derivatives are listvenites, which practically have not been studied in detail for the content of noble metals by now. Aim. The work is based on the study of listvenites in the framework of the study of the metallogeny of the noble metals of the North Caucasus in order to determine their spatial and genetic relationship with ultrabasites, which are localized in the contact zone of ore fields of the large copperpyrite Khudessky and gold-bearing Chuchkursky deposits. Methods. A historical review of the literature data on the genetic relationship and close relationship of listvenites with the ultrabasites of the North Caucasus, which initially contain noble metals (Au, Pt, Pd), has been carried out. The results of the research are based on the study of existing rock material in order to determine their composition, geochemical features and their potential ore content. Results. Aureole listvenites have been studied as the closest derivatives of ultrabasite processing, containing gold, but they are completely unexplored for platinum group metals. The field of Chuchkursky listvenites of the Northern Elbrus region, adjacent to the large endogenous Chuchkursky deposit of noble metals, has been explored since 1985. Geological, mineral and geochemical features of listvenites are distinguished. Particular attention is paid to the gold prospect in listvenites, geochemistry and mineralogy in comparison with the gold-bearing bodies of andesite-dacitic Permian volcanic rocks of the Chuchkursky deposit. A conclusion is made about the prospects of a complex of noble metals in listvenites, similar to the metals of the Chuchkursky deposit. For the first time for the North Caucasus, the ore content of listvenites with noble metals is considered.