Vanadium in the Arctic zone of Russia on the Kola region example: prevalence, sources, industrial potential

Abstract

This article gives a brief overview of the prevalence, sources and industrial potential of vanadium in the Arctic zone of Russia on the Kola region example. Within the Kola region many solid minerals is mining: apatite-nepheline ores of the Khibiny, rare earth elements ore of Lovozero, baddeleyite-apatite-magnetite ores of the Kovdor, ferruginous quartzites of Olenegorsk, copper-nickel deposits of Pechenga etc. In the region potential deposits of platinum group elements, chromium, titanium, lithium and beryllium are explored. Recent studies conducted by the workers of the KSC RAS, in combination with geological and exploration data of predecessors, indicate that within the Kola region there are large sources of vanadium. Numerous occurrences of vanadium mineralization, as well as deposits of vanadium, are mainly localized within the entire Paleoproterozoic Pechenga-Imandra-Varzuga (PIV) rift belt, which stretches for more than 500 km across the entire Kola Peninsula - from the throat of the White sea in the North-East to the Norwegian Caledonian in the North-West. The time of the belt development is considered to be at the period 2.5-1.7 Ga. Elevated concentrations of vanadium is installed in metasomatites at the contact of volcanics and dolomite in Prikhibin’e, in sedimentary rocks of the North Pechenga area and throughout the black-shale strata of the entire PIV zone. Mineralization, composed by extremely rare vanadium minerals, established in massive sulfide ores of the PIV belt, however, has only scientific interest. Potential sources of industrial extraction of vanadium are complex Fe-Ti-V ores, which are components of mafic/ultramafic layered intrusions. The study of Fe-Ti-V ores of the region continues.