Chromite placer occurrences of the Volga-Ural basin – genesis, sources and industrial potential

Chromium is a strategic metal, but more than a half of Russia’s needs are met by imports, so new deposits of chromites, including unconventional placer deposits, are of industrial and scientific interest. Previous studies and current works of the authors of the article have established the chromite placer metal content of Permian-Jurassic deposits of the Volga-Ural basin, which has industrial and potential significance: within the Lukoyanovsky placer area (Nizhny Novgorod region), the industrial chromite content of Jurassic coastal-marine titanium-zirconium placers has been established; in the south-west of Bashkiria, chromite-bearing sands (Sabantuy occurrence) with increased contents, but not yet clear industrial potential. The study of the typomorphism of chromites indicate their close relationship with the chrome spinel of ophiolite associations. The assumed overthrust structure of chromite-bearing hyperbasites of the Urals suggests a wide distribution of chromite-bearing sands within the Upper Permian-Jurassic Volga-Ural paleobasin, in which the increased content of chromites was controlled by hydro- and lithodynamic conditions favorable for placer formation. Questions of the genesis of chromite placer occurrences in the Ural part of the East European Platform, their distribution and primary sources need further study.

Asteroid break-ups and meteorite delivery to Earth the past 500 million years

The meteoritic material falling on Earth is believed to derive from large break-up or cratering events in the asteroid belt. The flux of extraterrestrial material would then vary in accordance with the timing of such asteroid family-forming events. In order to validate this, we investigated marine sediments representing 15 time-windows in the Phanerozoic for content of micrometeoritic relict chrome-spinel grains (>32 μm). We compare these data with the timing of the 15 largest break-up events involving chrome-spinel–bearing asteroids (S- and V-types). Unexpectedly, our Phanerozoic time windows show a stable flux dominated by ordinary chondrites similar to today’s flux. Only in the mid-Ordovician, in connection with the break-up of the L-chondrite parent body, do we observe an anomalous micrometeorite regime with a two to three orders-of-magnitude increase in the flux of L-chondritic chrome-spinel grains to Earth. This corresponds to a one order-of-magnitude excess in the number of impact craters in the mid-Ordovician following the L-chondrite break-up, the only resolvable peak in Phanerozoic cratering rates indicative of an asteroid shower. We argue that meteorites and small (<1-km-sized) asteroids impacting Earth mainly sample a very small region of orbital space in the asteroid belt. This selectiveness has been remarkably stable over the past 500 Ma.

Apoultramafic metasomatites of the Enganepe Uplift (the Polar Urals)

Ultramafic rocks of the Enganepe Uplift are transformed into serpentinites, magnesite-dolomite-talc and quartz-magnesite-dolomite metasomatites belonging to the beresite-listvenite formation. All apoultramafic rocks contain high chromium and nickel inherent in protolith. Chrome-spinel of the magmatic stage is represented by alumochromite, which, in the process of metamorphic and metasomatic transformation of rocks, has been replaced by secondary chrome-spinel (subferrialumochromite, ferrichromite) and chromium-bearing magnetite. The main nickel minerals are millerite and gersdorffite. In quartz-magnesite-dolomite rocks, nickel is party contained in Ni-Cr-chlorite.

Vliv diagenetických procesů na asociaci těžkých minerálů v pískovcích z lokality Slivotín (ždánická jednotka, flyšové pásmo Vnějších Západních Karpat, Česká republika)

An electron microprobe study of polished sections prepared from a sample of fine-grained sandstone from the locality Slivotín (Ždánice-Hustopeče Formation, Ždánice Unit, Flysch Belt of the Outer Western Carpathians, Czech Republic) allowed to yield in addition to data on chemical composition also the detailed information on in situ textural relationships of individual minerals. During our study, emphasis was given to accessory phases belonging to the translucent heavy mineral fraction. The detrital garnet (Alm36-82Grs2-45Prp2-22Sps0-15) was extensively dissolved and replaced by calcite cement from its margins and along the cracks. Detrital fluorapatite was dissolved in a similar way, however, dissolution episode was followed by growth of authigenic rims composed of carbonate-fluorapatite. Other observed heavy minerals (zircon, chrome spinel, TiO2 phase, monazite, tourmaline) probably remained unaltered by diagenetic processes. The chemical composition of chrome spinels varies mostly between magnesiochromite and chromite, whereas spinel is very rare. The chemical composition of garnets and chrome spinels is comparable with published data from Czech, Polish and Slovak parts of the Flysch Belt of the Western Carpathians, and indicates the primary source of detrital material in rocks of deeper parts of orogen, characterized especially by the presence of catazonal metamorphites and almost lacking volcanic rocks. Redeposition of heavy minerals from older sediments cannot also be ruled out. The pronounced diagenetic alteration of garnet, if not very scarce in the area of Flysch Belt, could help to explain the earlier observations of wide fluctuations of contents of garnet in heavy mineral concentrates.

Composition, structure and magnetic properties of ore chrome spinels of the Klyuchevsky massif (Middle Urals)

The overall objective was to create a geological and geophysical field test site for chromite mineralization and detailed works in order to determine and test the main search criteria for disseminated mineralization. To create a field test site, an area was selected in the southern part of the Klyuchevsky massif characterized by abundant development of disseminated mineralization in the banded dunite-clinopyroxenite complex and strong processes of superimposed metamorphism. This paper gives a piece of research on the composition of chrome spinel from disseminated ores that underwent metamorphism of different stages. The composition of chrome spinelide, the evolution of its metamorphism and the related changes in its magnetic properties are examined in detail. It was established that all chrome spinels are of a high-chromium type, to one degree or another, they were subject to secondary changes, leading to the appearance of magnetic phases. The degree and nature of the change in chrome spinels in dunites directly depends on the degree of metamorphism of the rocks. The formation of the magnetic phase begins with the formation of nuclei consisting of single magnetic dipoles, groups of 2-3 dipoles or chains of magnetic dipoles, which was first discovered by us in chrome spinel grains. Then there is an increase in the number of such phases, the appearance of optically diagnosed secondary changes in chrome spinelide. A comparison of the degree of variation of chrome spinel and its reflection in the pattern of recorded anomalies of geomagnetic fields allows us to identify some criteria for the search for disseminated chromite ores of this type.

Numerical modeling of the effects of major components in the melt on the chrome-spinel stability and a possible solution of the origin chromitites problem

Using a new model of the spinel-melt equilibrium SPINMELT-2.0, the effect of variations of fo-, fa-, en-, fs-, di-, an- and ab-components in high-Mg basaltic melts on the topology of the spinel liquidus was quantified. It has been established that enrichment of the melt in pyroxene components leads to an increase, and with plagioclase components, to a decrease in the solubility of chromite. This effect can be important during gravitational compaction of cumulates, accompanied by the extraction of intercumulus melt and its infiltration upward. In this case, one can expect a sequential re-equilibration of the infiltrating melt with cumulative piles of different composition. This suggests the possibility of transfer and new concentration of chrome-spinel at the postcumulus stage of solidification of layered intrusions. The nature of the concentration consists in the extraction of chrome-spinel into the melt enriched in pyroxene components, followed by its discharge during the reaction of this melt with a feldspar-rich matrix of proto-anorthosite layers. The realism of the proposed mechanism is evidenced by the well-known spatial association of chromite layers with anorthosites (intrusion of Ram island, Bushveld complex).