Discoveries of nanostructures of natural mercury-bearing gold at the surface of ilmenite crystals from the Fadeevskii ore-and-placer cluster (Primor’ye)

Abstract

1310 Recently, the volume of publications dedicated to the nanomineralogy of gold has increased significantly in the geological literature [1, 2]. Although there is wide coverage of the problem as a whole, we note that there is a lack of information on the natural nano structures of gold. Investigations of ultrasmall amounts of rock material sampled from the occur rences of rocks and deluvial sediments of the Fadeevskii ore and placer cluster (Fig. 1) located at the boundary between the Khankayskii and Laoelin Grodekovskii territories [3] may make up for this lack of information. In the lower part of the stratified section of the investigated area, basalt–siliceous–tuffaceous, sili ceous–clayey, argilliferous, and tuffaceous–sandstone sediments (S1–2) occur. They are overlapped by volca nogenic–sedimentary strata of Permian age (P1–2) and acid effusive rocks (P2). The rocks of the volcano genic–terrigenous complex, including black shales, are intruded in the south by large massifs of granitoids. In the north they are intruded by small bodies of gab broids and syenites [4]. Silver bearing gold, minerals of platinum group metals (first of all, isoferroplatinum) as well as sulfides (pyrite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, galenite, molibden ite), kassiterite, volframite, and minerals of bismuth were found among the minerals of heavy crop schlichs of loose sediments of the Faddevka (watershed system of Razdol’naya River) and Zolotaya (basin of the Nes terovka River) rivers draining granitoids and black shale stratum in the southern and northern parts of the area, respectively. A significant part of black schlich consists of ilmenite, magnetite, chromespinellides, garnets, rutile, and sphene. The presence of the unique association of natural mercury bearing gold, cinnabar, native metals, and carbides is a unique fea ture of northern placers [5].