Research subject. Large and super-large orogenic gold deposits are widely distributed across all continents. This work was aimed at characterizing 24 giant facilities with reserves and resources of more than 500 tons of metal.

Materials and methods. The work was based on the authors’ long-term fieldwork research into large and super-large gold deposits in Central Asia and the North-East of the Russian Arctic. In addition, an extensive bibliographic analysis of publications devoted to the largest gold deposits in the world was carried out.

Results. A structural analysis showed that the formation of these deposits underwent two main stages. The early – subduction stage – was characterized by the development of gentle disturbances, such as thrusts, thrust nappies, viscous discontinuities and crushing zones, while the structural paragenesis included isocline lying folds and cleavage of the axial surface. The second stage – collision-transpression – began with the deformation of the previously formed structure into open and compressed folds with steep axial surfaces; as a result of further compression, a series of longitudinal discontinuous disturbances developed. An oblique collision of interacting plates lead to the development of shear transpression structural paragenesis, in which oblique cracks predominate. It is established that, in orogenic gold deposits, different stages were characterized by ore-controlling and ore-bearing structures. The binding of ore-bearing disturbances to different stages enabled isolation of deposits of various types that differ in structural and morphological features. The main characteristics of the identified types of deposits are provided. The formation of these deposits occurred during convergent processes, with the ore-controlling structures being a surface manifestation of the movement of block terrains along the surface of the detachment.

Results. It is concluded that the surface of the detachment is not only a tectonic zone, but also a channel that provides a link between various deep levels of the subduction zone, from where ore-bearing hydrothermal fluids emerge.

Research subject. This is the first in the series of four articles, which aims to review existing provenance reconstruction tools.

Methods and materials. The data obtained during evaluation of different sandstone allothigenous components was used as a basis for analysis. The data was collected from the Upper Riphean Zilmerdak Formation Bir’yan Member and the Upper Vendian Bassa Formation (Southern Urals); the Upper Devonian Kodinka and Ust’kodinka formations (Middle Urals); the Lower Cretaceous Sortym Formation (Western Siberian sedimentary megabasin, Bolshekhetskaya depression).

Results. The sandstone composition patterns of the lithostratigraphic units under study allowed the most common provenance features to be established by means of comparing data obtained by various diagrams.

Conclusions. It is established that only the Kodinka, Ust’kodinka and Sortym sandstone compositions can be used as a source for rock reconstruction analysis, while the Bir’yan and Basa sandstone compositions have undergone massive transformations. 

Research subject. This study was devoted to magmatic complexes in Northwestern Chukotka associated with the largest gold and silver deposits across Kupol’skii (Kupol field) and Ilirnei (Dvoinoe and September fields) ore junctions. 

Materials and methods. The petrogenic elements of ore-containing igneous rocks were determined using a spectrometer ICAP 6500Duo (USA). An elemental analysis of igneous and ore samples was performed by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP-MS). The age was determined by zircons (SHRIMP-II, VSEGEI isotope research center, St. Petersburg) using a laser ablation system NWR-213 (USA).

Results. New information concerning the dating of magmatic complexes and gold-bearing magmatic systems in the ore junctions under study was obtained. It was established that the manifestations of magmatism in the Kupol and Ilirnei ore junctions differ in terms of the main phase formation age. The age of the Ilirnei ore junction, which is represented by large-volume intrusions of granitoids, leucogranites and volcanites of medium-basic composition, was determined to be 124–114 Ma. The age of mineralization, which is associated with later magmatism phases – small intrusions and a dike complex of predominantly granodiorite composition –, was estimated to be (93– 92) ± 2.0 Ma. In the Kupol ore junction, the magmatism associated with mineralization was dated 91.0 ± 1.4 Ma, while the age of rhyolite dikes containing mineralization was estimated to be 88.9–89.0 Ma.

Conclusion. The results of the RMS analysis of the Kupol and Ilirney ore junctions suggest that ore formation in this region was connected with a single stage of activation of deep processes and mantle-crust interaction with participation of deep (mantle) fluids. 

Research subject. A meridional Tastau rift structure located in the Famenian sub-latitude rift system of Central Kazakhstan was investigated, including the specific features of its constituent sediments and volcanism, as well as the stages of its development.

Materials and methods. The study was based on data collected during a long period of fieldwork, including a detailed study of the sequence of sedimentation processes, large-scale geocarting, sampling for various types of precision analyses.

Results. The typomorphic features of the main rock types were determined. It was shown that basaltoid rocks occurred in the form of pillow structures with a hyaloclastite matrix between the pillows. Siliceous shales are saturated with thin ash silicic acid material. A geological scheme of the Tastau structure and its specific features was presented in a series of cross-sections. The developmental stages of this structure were established. The structure was referred to the rift type.

Conclusion. The material and structural features of the investigated Tastau section are shown to be typical of the entire rift system of Central Kazakhstan. The pre-rift (Frasnian) stage is characterized by continental volcanism in the form of highpotassium and ultra-potassium rhyolite ignimbrites composing an encialic island-arc structure. These volcanites belong to the shoshonite and high-potassium lime-alkaline petrochemical series. The rift stage itself began in the Early Famenian age with the formation of a system of narrow deep troughs, into which the sea from the neighbouring Zhongaro-Balkhash sea region started to ingress. The conglomerates are characterized by thin flattened isometric pebbles, whose well-polished surface is similar to that of pebbles in modern sea beaches. The sandstones exhibit a high level of lamination and are characterized by poorly pelletized clastic material. The clastic material is represented by the underlying Frasnian rhyolitic ignimbrites carried in from the sides of the trough. The mature rift stage is characterized by the accumulation (under marine conditions) of pillow basalts and hyaloclastites and thin-layered silicite-clay-carbonate shales with abundant ash. The postrift stage is responsible for the formation of layered limestones of the Lower Tournaisian, developed also widely beyond the specified rift trough. 

Research subject. The article discusses the features of the relationship between biotite and amphibole on the example of magmatogene melanocratic rocks from a number of granitoid massifs of the Urals. These rocks form xenoliths and synplutonic intrusions of the calc-alkaline series of normal alkalinity: gornblenditam, gabbro, diorite, quartz diorite. They are composed of amphibole, acidic or middle plagioclase, in a subordinated quanitity they contain clinopyroxene, biotite, potassium feldspar, quartz.

Materials and methods. The composition of the minerals of melanocratic rocks was determined on a JSM-6990LV electron microscope with an EDC-adapter of INCA Energy 450 X-Max 80 in the Geoanalytical Center of the IGG Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Results and conclusions. Wide variations in amphibole compositions and narrow biotite variations caused by exchange processes between the mineral and postmagmatic fluid are shown. The phenomenon of replacement of early magmatic amphibole with biotite is substantiated by the presence of a gap in the crystallization temperatures of minerals, indicating a lack of physicochemical equilibrium between them. Their structural relationships confirm the development of biotite as a result of the replacement of amphibole in accordance with the competent and incompetent phase boundaries. In the first case, the structural packets of biotite are embedded along the silicon-oxygen chains of amphibole, which is expressed in the parallelism of the (001) plane of biotite with the (100), (110) planes of amphibole. In the second case, the development of biotite occurs irregularly, inheriting the system of cracks in amphibole. The distribution of Mg/Fe between biotite and early magmatic amphibole was studied, showing that the magnesia value of biotite is higher than that of amphibole replaced by it. Inverse ratios of magnesia value occur between biotite and post-magmatic amphibole. The equality of the magnesia values of both minerals may reflect the conditions of subsolidus equilibration of the compositions. The problem of choosing amphibole compositions for calculating the PTparameters of the formation of massifs in the Earth crust is considered.

Research subject. 14 samples of limestone and one sample of carbonate-siliciclastic rock from siliciclastic-carbonate deposits of the Upper Riphean Uk Formation (the Southern Urals) were studied.

Methods. Mineral and chemical composition of the samples were determined; the main tool for detecting the concentrations of trace elements was the ICPMS method. X-ray diffraction analysis was carried out using a Shimadzu XRD-7000 diffractometer, the content of major (rock-forming) oxides in bulk samples was established by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry on the SRM-35 and Shimadzu XRF 1800 spectrometers. Microelement composition of bulk samples and acidic leachates obtained with using acetic (10%), nitric (36%) and hydrochloric (17%) acids was determined on a Perkin Elmer ELAN 9000 spectrometer.

Results. The distribution of lithophile, rare-earth and a number of other elements (Sr, Ni, U) both in bulk samples and in acidic leachates was analyzed. The main carrier phases of these elements were revealed.

Conclusions. 1. The use of any listed acids leads to the non-carbonate component entering the solution, including contamination of the “carbonate” leachates by lithophile elements. In particular, a transition Rb, Zr, Li, Th, Ti, Sc to leachates was noted. This process is most active in nitric and hydrochloric acids, less intensive in acetic acid. 2. Among the carriers of rare earth elements (REE) in the studied rocks are clays (1), accessory minerals (2), including phosphate-bearing grains, secondary carbonate phases represented by dolomite and, possibly (3), finely disseminated iron and manganese (oxy)hydroxides (4). It is assumed that the REE pattern in limestones is determined by the content of the epigenetic dolomite. The contribution of lanthanides bound in the sedimentary calcite crystal lattice in the total REE pattern is rather large only in relatively “pure” limestones. However, the use of acids with such concentrations did not allow to obtain a leachate, which the REE pattern with high probability corresponds to the distribution of REE in the Uk time seawater. But acetic acid is more effective for achieving this goal than the others. 3. In addition to Sr, sedimentary calcite also contains Ni and U.

Research subject. The article presents the results of a microscopic and photogoniometric study of natural rounded diamonds of tetraghexahedral habit from the kimberlite pipe “Internationalnaya” (Yakutia). The diamonds was partially dissolved in a sulphur-containing iron melt (sulphur content of 15–30 wt %) at 4.5 GPa and 1450ºС.

Methods. The experiments were carried out on a multi-puncheon apparatus of a “split-sphere” type in high-pressure solid-phase cells made of refractory oxides ZrO2, CaO, MgO using a cylindrical shape graphite heater. The crystals were studied using an MBS-10 optical microscope with a photo camera, and a Jeol JSM-6510LV scanning electron microscope. A goniometric study of diamond crystals was carried out by a photo method in a cylindrical chamber. It was found that when a sulphur content was 15 wt %, diamond crystals of tetrahexahedral habit were transformed into a curved shaped octahedroids with morphological features similar to natural diamonds found in kimberlites. When the sulphur content was 23–30 wt %, the rate of dissolution of diamonds in the Fe-S melt sharply reduced, while the diamond surface at the micro level became covered with numerous etching hillocks, whose sidewalls have surfaces similar to flat-faced {111} form. Dissolution of the rounded diamonds in the Fe-S melt at high pressure occurred by a “normal” mechanism, that is perpendicular to the surface of the dissolving crystal through trigonal dissolution layers, while a tangential-layered mechanism played a minor role.

Conclusion. The natural diamond crystals could underwent dissolution in the mantle before they were captured by kimberlite magma. Two fundamentally different types of homomorphic and typomorphic features of the dissolution forms observed on natural diamonds can be determined, namely: on one side, those associated with storage in mantle before the crystals were captured by the kimberlite magma, and on the other side, with the kimberlite process itself. The presence of octahedral diamonds with parallel (trigonal) striation in kimberlite deposits may indicate on a high degree of diamond preservation due to relatively insignificant effect of the kimberlite magma. This, undoubtedly, should help to decipher the diamond genesis and, possibly, improve the mineralogical criteria used in diamond exploration.