Physicochemical modeling of formation of Ag–Au–Hg solid solutions: Kyuchyus deposit (Yakutia, Russia) as an example

Abstract

The «Selektor-C» software package and standard thermodynamic functions of ternary Ag–Au–Hg solid solutions were used for developing physicochemical models in natural processes with participation of gold, silver and mercury. On the example of the Kyuchyus Au–Sb–Hg deposit we have worked out hypogene and hypergene models of formation of native gold, including mercuric gold. We obtained thermodynamic evidence that the Kyuchyus deposit ores formed with the origin of electrum at the early main productive quartz–sulfide stage and ternary Au–Ag–Hg solid solutions at the late non-substantive Au-bearing stages.