The Features of Native Gold in Ore-Bearing Breccias with Realgar-Orpiment Cement of the Vorontsovskoe Deposit (Northern Urals, Russia)

Abstract

This paper describes native gold in ore-bearing breccias with realgar-orpiment cement from the Vorontsovskoe gold deposit (Northern Urals, Russia). Particular attention is paid to the morphological features of native gold and its relation to other minerals. The latter include both common (orpiment, barite, pyrite, prehnite, realgar) and rare species (Tl and Hg sulfosalts, such as boscardinite, dalnegroite, écrinsite, gillulyite, parapierrotite, routhierite, sicherite, vrbaite, etc.). The general geological and geochemical patterns of the Turyinsk-Auerbakh metallogenic province, including the presence of small non-economic copper porphyry deposits and general trend in change of the composition of native gold (an increase in the fineness of gold from high-temperature skarns to low-temperature realgar-orpiment breccias) confirm that the Vorontsovskoe deposit is an integral part of a large ore-magmatic system genetically associated with the formation of the Auerbakh intrusion.

Editorial for Special Issue “Mineralogy of Noble Metals and ‘Invisible’ Speciations of These Elements in Natural Systems, Volume II”

“…A number of articles [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] are devoted to the study of gold mineralization at different deposits and the characterization of the physicochemical conditions of its formation.…”

“…Stepanov et al [11] described the morphological features and composition of native gold and its relation to minerals in ore-bearing breccias with realgar-orpiment cement from the Vorontsovskoe gold deposit (Northern Urals, Russia). Despite a comprehensive study of this deposit, its genesis remains controversial.…”