International Geology Review, Vol. 36, 1994, pp. 92-100. Copyright © 1994 by Y H. Winston & Son, Inc. All rights reserved.

Russia's Platinum-Group Metals: A Current Survey DAVID B. DOAN U. S. Bureau of Mines, Washington, DC 20241 AND ANDREW R. BOND V. H. Winston & Son, Inc., Silver Spring, MD 20910

Abstract A s u r v e y of R u s s i a ' s p l a t i n u m - g r o u p m e t a l s e x a m i n e s a n u m b e r of d i m e n s i o n s involved i n t h e i r m i n i n g a n d p r o c e s s i n g . E s t i m a t e s of r e s e r v e s a n d p r o d u c t i o n a r e assessed in light of d e p o s i t t y p e (lode vs. p l a c e r ) a n d relative a b u n d a n c e of v a r i o u s p l a t i n u m - g r o u p m e t a l s in o r e s . C o m p l e x p o l y m e t a l l i c sulfide o r e s i n lode d e p o s i t s at N o r i l ' s k a n d T a l n a k h c u r r e n t l y a c c o u n t for all c o m m e r c i a l o u t p u t of p l a t i n u m g r o u p m e t a l s in R u s s i a (as b y p r o d u c t s i n t h e e x t r a c t i o n of c o p p e r , n i c k e l , c o b a l t , a n d o t h e r m e t a l s ) , b u t r e c e n t p l a n s t o develop o s m i u m - a n d i r i d i u m - r i c h p l a c e r s in t h e Far East r e g i o n a n d e l s e w h e r e a r e reviewed. I n a s m u c h as over half of R u s s i a ' s o u t p u t ( t h e w o r l d ' s s e c o n d - l a r g e s t after S o u t h A f r i c a ' s ) h a s m o v e d o n t o w o r l d m a r k e t s i h r e c e n t y e a r s , f a c t o r s i n f l u e n c i n g t h i s t r a d e are e x a m i n e d as well. T h e s e i n c l u d e w o r l d supply, o u t p u t t r e n d s for p r i m a r y c o p r o d u c t s at N o r i l ' s k ( n i c k e l a n d copper), changing industrial applications, projected future demand (both Russian and world), dealer a n d p r o d u c e r p r i c e s , a n d d e v e l o p m e n t t e n d e r s . It a p p e a r s t h a t R u s s i a will m a i n t a i n a s t r o n g p r e s e n c e i n w o r l d m a r k e t s for p l a t i n u m - g r o u p m e t a l s for t h e f o r e s e e a b l e f u t u r e .

Introduction THE PLATINUM-GROUP metals (PGM) are among the rarest and most valuable metallic elements on earth. Because of their low concentration, accurate determinations of crustal abundance are difficult and tentative. The latter has been estimated only crudely as: platinum—5 parts per billion (ppb); palladium—10 ppb; and iridium, osmium, rhodium, and ruthenium—1 ppb each (e.g., Page et al., 1973, p. 538). The principal industrial uses of PGM are as catalysts in the automotive, chemical, and petroleum refining industries. 1 PGM also serve 'For example, 38% of PGM consumed in the United States is used in the manufacture of automobile catalytic converters (Pt, Pd, Rh) and an additional 4% in catalysts in the chemical industry (e.g., in the production of nitric acid, hydrogen cyanide, and hydrogen peroxide, as noted in USBM, 1993, p. 130). In petroleum refining, such important processes as hydrocracking, catalytic reforming, and isomerization rely on use of platinum, palladium, and iridium (Loebenstein, 1985, p. 598-599). Hydrocracking, a process used to orient the refining | process toward the production of a higher share of light petroleum fractions (gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel) and away from heavy fractions (e.g., oils, greases), is much less developed in Russia than in the United States and was a priority in (continued)

0020-6814/94/41/92-9 $10.00

as refractory materials in the ceramics and glass industries because of their high resistance to heat (and corrosion). In the electrical and electronics industries they are used in the production of items such as electroplating, low-voltage electrical contacts in telephone switching, voltage regulators, capacitors, and anodes. One of the more newsworthy developments regarding potential PGM applications was the use of palladium as a cathode and catalyst in so-called "cold fusion" experiments 2 in the late 1980s at the University of Utah and later at Moscow University (e.g., Wall Street Journal, April 7, 1989). Because of the absence of acceptable non-PGM substitutes for many applications, 3 three PGM—platinum, palladium, and iridium—are held in the National Defense Stockpile (USBM, 1993, p. 130). Rhodium and ruthenium also are considered "strategic," as plans exist for the creation of inventories of these metals in the reserve as well. former Soviet plans to upgrade domestic refining capacity (e.g., see Sagers, 1987). Therefore, consumption for this type of use in Russia is expected to increase in the future as it is for catalytic reforming, which is used to raise octane ratings within fractions. 2 Refers to attempts to induce nuclear fusion at room, as opposed to superhot, temperatures.

92

RUSSIA'S PLATINUM-GROUP

The low geologic concentrations and array of sophisticated industrial applications, as well as uses of PGM in the jewelry industry and as an investment vehicle, are responsible for the high prices commanded by these metals on world metkls markets. 4 Platinum futures (for October 1994 delivery) on the New York Mercantile Exchange had risen to $430.50 per ounce by late July 1994 (New York Times, July 27,1994, p. D15), reflecting a good demand picture and episodic concerns about political instability in Russia and South Africa, like Russia a major producing country (see below). Demand for new catalytic converters is expected to remain stro ig, as more nations set and/or raise automot ile emissions standards. Furthermore, the oil refining process used to produce the unleaded fuel burned in the engines of such converter-equipped vehicles also uses platinum as a catalyst (Ibid.). This is particularly relevant wit! respect to the former USSR, which signed an agreement in 1990 with the A. C. Rochester Division of the General Motors Corporation to supply catalytic converters for the export model (Lacla) production line at the Volga Automobile Plant in Togliatti (e.g., New York Times, July 24, 1991, p. D8).This was accompanied by efforts by the former Soviet Union's Ministry of the Automobile Industry and its Precious Metals Fore(ign Trade Administration (Almazjuvelireksport) to enlist joint venture partners for domestic autocatalyst production (Metal Bulletin, October 15, 1990, p. 19). The current dealer price for platinum—well over $400 per ounce as this article goes to press—is up from averages in the $350 to $375 per-ounce range in 1991 and 1992, but still down from the $523 average per-ounce price for 1988 (USBM, 1993, p. 130) and an all-time peak 3

A survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit of 36 commodities deemed essential to the functioning of European Community economies in the late 1980s found that no substitutes were available for "critical uses" of 10 of them, including PGM (Mining Journal, June 3, 1988, p. 454). Yet even when substitution for PGM is possible, it is often at the cost of a substantial reduction in efficiency. However, in the advanced industrial economies recycling is reasonably well developed and losses during secondary recovery are low (Loebenstein, 1985, p. 607). 4 Platinum and palladium, including that produced by the former Soviet Union and, now, Russia, are traded on the Commodity Exchange (COMEX) and New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

METALS

93

of $905 per ounce in 1979 (Adams, 1983, p. 553). Palladium, somewhat less expensive because of greater relative abundance, exhibited similar dynamics, dropping from a $144 per-ounce average in 1989 to $83 in 1992, before rising to an October 1994 delivery price of $153.95 per ounce. Rhodium appears to be the only PGM whose price recently has reflected genuine supply concerns. A major explosion that shut down a natural gas pipeline supplying the Noril'sk-Talnakh complex in the fall of 1989 kept Soviet rhodium off the world spot market for several months; this, in tandem with production problems at South Africa's Rustenburg PGM refinery, created expectations of future shortages that pushed rhodium (dealer) prices from $1700 per troy oz. in January 1990 to $7200 per oz. in June of that year. Prices now are down below $3000 per troy oz.

General Mine Output and Reserves Two countries dominated world mine output of PGM in 1992, which amounted to roughly 294 metric tons (platinum content in ore). South Africa, the leading producer of platinum and total PGM, accounted for 150 tons of output—51% of the world total. Russia mined 121 tons, or 4 1 % of the world total (Ibid., p. 131). By virtue of palladium's dominance in the content of PGM ores at Russia's main producing site (Noril'sk-Talnakh), that country actually leads the world in mine output of palladium; in typical years Russia's production accounted for over half the world total. The two countries' positions with respect to reserves differ more substantially than suggested by production totals. South Africa is credited with 89% of world PGM reserves, whereas Russia appears to possess only 9% of world reserves. Russia's production of primary (finished metal) PGM for 1992 was estimated as 81 tons (20 tons Pt, 55 tons Pd, and 6 tons other), a total that preliminary estimates indicate dropped to 59 tons in 1993 (15 tons Pt, 40 tons Pd, 4 tons other). Inasmuch as Russian output exceeds domestic consumption, it exports a considerable portion of its production to foreign markets (predominantly the industrialized West and Japan). Russia, for example, may have exported as much as 16 tons in 1992 (Levine, 1993). The

94

D. B. DOAN AND A. R. BOND

year before, revenues from such exports reportedly totaled $363 million (PlanEcon Business Report, May 27,1992, p. 17). This apparant ratio of exports to overall production (i.e., retention of less than half of mined and refined platinum for domestic use) appears to be typical of the former Soviet Union (FSU) as well, although, as noted elsewhere, there are indications that domestic consumption could rise considerably once economic conditions improve. Because commercially exploitable concentrations of PGM are present in only a few locations, concerns have arisen in the West from time to time about the reliability of supplies. Until the late 1980s, for example, the United States produced no domestic mine output of PGM. Yet that decade witnessed considerable political instability and, at times, armed military conflict in a number qf southern African countries that were major world suppliers of PGM or other rare metals with important industrial and military applications, such as cobalt and chromium (e.g., South Africa, Namibia, Zaire, Zambia, Angola, Mozambique). The prospect that Soviet client states or otherwise "unfriendly" governments might come to power in these countries led to concerns about possible future supply cutoffs and/or forced reliance upon imports from the USSR. According to this scenario, PGM and bther rare metals could be withheld in a "resource war" to hamper the West's industrial capabilities and military preparedness vis-a-vis the Soviet bloc (e.g., American Metals Market, May 2 1 , 1981; April 14, 1983; Metal Bulletin Monthly, August 1982). These fears never materialized, for a number of reasons. Of primary importance was the significance of metals exports to the southern African producers, who, despite instability, continued to export. 5 The USSR, far from cutting back production in any attempt to pressure Western consumers, in fact escalated exports of PGM and several strategic ferroalloys during the later 1980s (American Metals Market, May 5

Another factor that sustained exports, particularly from South Africa, was the fact that such materials as PGM, antimony, chromite, and ferrosilicon Were exempted from the trade sanctions imposed by the United States against South Africa under the terms of the Comprehensive AntiApartheid Act of 1986.

27, 1988). These trends, the growing potential for recycling automobile converters (given sufficiently high prices), and the onset of PGM concentrate production by the Stillwater Mining Company outside Nye, Montana, all have contributed to a generally favorable supply picture to date, as noted below.

Geologic Occurrence and Mineralogy The PGM originate in rocks of mantle origin. They occur in ultramafic rocks as lode deposits (e.g., in peridotites and pyroxenites) or as placer deposits in present or ancient fluvial systems such as stream valleys, terraces, beaches, deltas, and glacial outwash (Page et al., 1973, p. 539). In the Russian lode deposits currently being worked, PGM typically are found in sulfide orebodies that also yield copper, nickel, cobalt, and other elements (e.g., Noril'sk, Pechenga—see below). In platinumbearing placer deposits PGM and gold may be found together. 6 Within PGM orebodies, one of the more common minerals is native platinum. However, other forms include sperrylite (PtAs 2 ), cooperite (Pt[AS] 2 ), stibiopalladinite (Pd 3 Sb), laurite (RuIrOs)S 2 , atokite ([Pd, Pt, Cu] 3 Sn), merenskyite (PdTe 2 ), mangerite (PdBiTe), and various alloys of the PGM—e.g., osmiridium, platiniridium, ferroplatinum, and cuproplatinum. The section that follows describes Russia's major PGM deposits, both the ones where production is under way and those either slated for development or currently being explored.

Major Deposits Because of the rarity and strategic importance of PGM, reserves and production data for Russia during the Soviet period generally were not available. After the disintegration of the USSR, the situation improved somewhat with respect to national production totals and reserves, although data on precise production 6

In Russia, in contrast to the sulfide lode deposits, placer deposits typically contain platinum, with few or none of the other PGM in appreciable quantities (see Table 1).

RUSSIA'S PLATINUM-GROUP

95

METALS

xxlxjxj

Upland Areas

0

20

40

60

i

1

i

i

kilometers

70

FIG. 1. Map of Noril'sk-Talnakh area showing approximate location of ore fields.

and reserves at individual deposits remain unavailable. It is possible, however, to ascertain relative magnitudes of output at the major individual mining areas. Noril 'sk- Talnakh According to recent Russian sources, "virtually 100%" {IMR, October 1-8, 1993, p. 4; Interfax Business Report (IBR), June 17, 1994, p. 5) or " 1 0 0 % " (IMR, October 8-15, 1993, p. 8; Interfax Mining and Metals Report (IMMR), June 10-17, 1994, p. 6) of Russia's current output of PGM comes from copper-nickel sulfide ores found at two sites in northern East Siberia: (1) on the lower northern slopes of the

Noril'sk Plateau (Noril'sk) and (2) along the southern margin of the nearby Kharayelakh Plateau (Talnakh) in the Taymyr okrug of Krasnoyarsk Kray (Fig. I ) . 7 PGM output is derived as a byproduct during processing of the ^Therefore, descriptions of output at other locations refer to past output that terminated at dates that cannot be determined through currently available sources. Some of these other areas could see renewed activity if PGM prices rise and/or mining costs decrease. For background on the history of the exploration and discovery of the coppernickel sulfide ores at Noril'sk-Talnakh, see Bond (1983, Chapter 4 ) ; for general information on the overall economic development in the region, see Bond (1984).

96

D. B. DOAN AND A. R. BOND

ores for Cu, Ni, Co, and a number of other metals. Industrial-scale mining began during the early 1940s at Noril'sk and mid-1960s at Talnakh, supplanting rather rapidly placer deposits in the Urals as the country's major source of supply. Because of the high value of the PGM in the sulfide ores, the development of Talnakh featured a succession of ever-deeper shaft mines, among the deepest in the world at the time. 8 A large portion of the copper-nickel sulfide ores containing PGM at Noril'sk consist of large, wavy, layer-like beds, veins, and streaks situated mainly in the rock that underlies intrusions and in the lower portions of the intrusions proper. Ores mined for various metals at the deposit, categorized in terms of formation process, include magmatic segregations, contact zone deposits, and replacements. The literature indicates that the majority of the Noril'sk ore deposits occur in magmatic segregations, with ores being disseminated among gabbros and diabases in the lower portions of steeply pitching intrusions. Magmatic segregations are believed to form in cooling magma bodies as various metals crystallize at successively lowered temperatures. For example, the melting/crystallization temperature for platinum is a relatively high 1768° C, but some of the PGM are in a range above 2000° C. The partially solidified ores have been thought to tend to sink, because of their high specific gravity, to the bottom of the magma body and accumulate there. This process, however, classically called "crystal settling," does invoke certain questions concerning rheology and convection. At Noril'sk, in any case, iron, nickel, copper, platinum, and other rare metals commonly occur as if combined in magma-body liquids by crystallization at relatively high temperatures. Thus they were among the first to accumulate in the magma pool (Godlevskiy, 1959, p. 21). This explains their spatial affinity with the lower portions of the intrusions. 8

The shaft mines (with depths in parentheses) included: Mayak in 1966 (75 m), Komsomol in 1971 (470 m), Oktyabr' in 1974 (900-1200 m), and Taymyrskiy—then the deepest mine in the USSR—in 1983 (some 1600 m, as noted in Shabad, 1977).

The ores from which platinum-group metals are extracted at Noril'sk and Talnakh contain an average of 3 parts palladium to 1 part platinum, with rhodium content ranging from 1 to 11% of the total PGM composition. This trait also is characteristic of PGM from the coppernickel sulfides at Monchegorsk on the Kola Peninsula (Table 1). In this regard, the Russian PGM composition in lode deposits is distinctive from that of other major producing countries; in South Africa, Canada, and Colombia platinum either dominates the output mix within the PGM or is equal to palladium (Adams, 1983, p. 549). The distinction conveys no particular economic advantage for Russia; palladium's industrial applications heretofore are no more significant than those of platinum; in fact, palladium increasingly is substituted for its more valuable co-member in a variety of uses. The nonferrous metals plant at Krasnoyarsk, which refines platinum and other PGM from a matte semiproduct supplied by the Noril'sk mining and metallurgical complex (both the plant and the complex have been administered by the Noril'sk Nickel Concern, which mines and smelts the Noril'sk-Talnakh and Kola Peninsula polymetallic sulfide ores), was accounting for 85% of Russia's PGM in the mid-1980s (Loebenstein, 1985, p. 596). The remainder of Russia's PGM are processed at Monchegorsk on the Kola Peninsula and in the Urals. It should be noted, however, that much of the PGM output at Monchegorsk is based also on Noril'sk matte (smelter semiproduct) or ore concentrate shipped westward via the Northern Sea Route. 9 Because of its dominant position with respect to Russia's PGM concentrate production, developments at the Noril'sk complex warrant further attention. The apparent decline in overall PGM output in 1993 relative to 1992 parallels the 27% decline in output of their primary coproduct, nickel, at Noril'sk over the same period. Lowered nickel production reflects both depressed domestic demand for nickel as overall industrial output continued its slide in 1993, and the absence of compensating increases in export volumes—unlike the situation with regard to aluminum (see Sehnke and Bond, 1993, p. 1052). Because primary PGM tonnages amount to such a small fraction of overall 9

For additional information about the operation Monchegorsk, see Bond and Levine (1989).

in

RUSSIA'S PLATINUM-GROUP

97

METALS

TABLE 1. PGM Content in Selected Russian Deposits 1 Deposit

Ir

Rh

Pd

Pt

0.15-2.0 1.5 0.2

1.6-3.75 11.2 1.0

67.0-71.0 64.8 76.0

25.0 16.4 22.7

2.5 2.1

0.5 0.6

0.2-0.3 0.4 2.0-12.9 0.1-1.0

77.9 84.4 58-74 63-67

Ru

Os

1.0-2.0 2.7 0.1

0.0-1.0 3.4 —

— — —

— —

—

—

—

2.3

—

0.15-4.4

3.2-4.8

Lode Noril'sk Talnakh Monchegorsk

Placer 2 Nizhniy Tagil Konder Ugol'nyy Ruchey (Noril 'sk) Vilyuy (Sakha republic)

'Figures are percentages of total PGM content accounted for by individual platinum-group metals. No data available for osmium content in placers. Sources: Compiled and adapted from Adams, 1983, p. 548; Loebenstein, 1985, p. 597'; Interfax Mining Report (IMR), October 8-15, 1993, p. 7. 2

nickel output at Noril'sk-Talnakh (for Russia as a whole the ratio was 59 versus 160,000 tons in 1993), levels of PGM output can be expected to continue to parallel that of their more abundant coproduct. Thus, barring rather rapid improvement in demand for nickel on world markets, it is not unreasonable to envisage a continuation of somewhat reduced, recent levels of PGM output at the deposit. Organizational changes also could impact levels of output. Twelve percent of the shares of the Noril'sk Nickel Concern, which unites six enterprises 10 responsible for the production of 72% of Russia's nickel output, "almost 100%" of its PGM, and 70% of its cobalt, was sold in a national voucher-based auction over the period 16-30 June 1994. The auction, setting the stage for the Concern's reorganization as a jointstock company (IMMR, May 13-20, 1994, p. 14), leaves the state with a 38% share for a three-year period, with the remainder being made available to employees and management of the former concern in various forms (IBR, June 17, 1994, p. 5). Initially the management of the Krasnoyarsk Nonferrous Metals Plant attempted to opt out of the reorganization process by seeking to establish its independence from the Concern 10

The enterprises are: the Noril'sk Mining and Metallurgical Combine, the Krasnoyarsk Nonferrous Metals Plant, the Pechenganickel (Pechenga, Zapol'yarnyy) and Severonickel (Monchegorsk) mining and metallurgical enterprises, the Olenogorsk Machine-building Plant (Kola Peninsula), and the Gipronickel Research Institute.

(IMMR, May 27-June 3,1994, p. 11). The move apparently reflected worries on the part of Krasnoyarsk Kray officials that privatization of the Concern would reduce deductions from plant revenues into the kray budget (IMMR, June 10-17,1994, p. 6). These fears appeared to have been allayed during a meeting between Russian President Boris N. Yel'tsin and kray government officials, thus maintaining (for the time being) the industry's entire vertical production chain within a single administrative body. Kola Peninsula PGM that were extracted on the Kola Peninsula also are byproducts of polymetallic sulfide ore processing from lode deposits. Mines at Monchegorsk (now largely depleted), Pechenga, and Zapol'yarnyy (Zhdanov deposit) produced ore concentrates that subsequently yielded gold, silver, PGM, copper, nickel, cobalt, tellurium, and selenium (for background, see Shabad, 1969, p. 117; Adams, 1983). Geologically, both the Monchegorsk and Pechenga/ Zhdanov deposits represent an eastern extension of the Pechenga-Imandra-Varzuga supracrustal belt (e.g., see Snyder et al., 1994). The belt is considered to be a suture zone between the Archean Kola block on the north and the White Sea block on the south. Two sub-belts exist: the Pechenga to the northwest, which contains the Pechenga and Zhdanov deposits, and the Imandra-Varzuga sub-belt, which contains the Monchegorsk orebody (Ibid.). The orebody is within the Monchegorsk layered

98

D. B. DOAN AND A. R. BOND

intrusion, one of the least-metamorphosed ultramafic bodies in the supracrustal belt. In overall layering sequences and petrology, the Monchegorsk body is not dissimiliar to the Bushveld complex in South Africa and the Stillwater complex in Montana. The Kola ores generally are similar in composition to those at Noril'sk (e.g., see Monchegorsk in Table 1), except for portions of the Pechenga ore field. Some orebodies there have been altered by metamorphism subsequent to their formation in igneous intrusions. This has led to the modification of PGM ratios vis-a-vis other major elements in the ores, such as Cu and Ni (Distler et al., 1990, p. 70). In the metamorphosed ores, the main PGM-bearing minerals are of the cobaltite-gersdorffite series (e.g., nickel-cobalt sulfarsenides). Platinum, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, and osmium have been identified in ore samples from the series, but no palladium. Urals As recently as the early 1980s, roughly two percent of Russia's commercial concentrations of platinum could be found within a belt extending some 250 to 300 km N - S on the eastern slope of the Urals—from south of Nizhniy Tagil to the Serov area (Adams, 1983, p. 548). Three separate finds over the period from 1819 to 1825 fueled Russia's emergence as the world's leading platinum producer during the remainder of the 19th and early 20th centuries. First, in 1819, platinum was found in goldbearing river gravels (Ibid., p. 547) east of Yekaterinburg. A virtually pure platinum placer deposit was found in 1824 farther north in the basin of the Is River (roughly midway N - S between Nizhniy Tagil and Serov). A number of producing areas were developed in this region, where output appears to have peaked during the 1930s. Farther north, some 75 km west of Serov, production continued until at least the late 1960s from the mining settlement of Kytlym (Shabad, 1969, p. 217-218). A third, even richer, find of the 19th century, along the Sukhoy Visim River SW of Nizhniy Tagil, became the basis for Russia's 19th-century platinum exports to world markets. Output increased from 87 kg in 1825, the first year of commercial production, to 1750 kg six years later in 1831 (Adams, 1983, p. 547).

The Urals placer deposits (e.g., Nizhniy Tagil in Table 1), unlike the Noril'sk ores, are low in palladium and high in platinum, osmium, and iridium. In addition, and also unlike the Noril'sk ores, they are naturally concentrated and can be recovered by gravity separation. Gravity concentrates go directly into refining, whereas the PGM widely disseminated in the Noril'sk sulfide ores undergo flotation separation and smelting before refining (Loebenstein, 1985, p. 597). The Urals placers are located in gravels of both ancient and current river channels. Inasmuch as placers contain PGM-bearing material weathered and transported from primary lode deposits in mafic and ultramafic rocks, a standard prospecting technique is to search for a lode source once a placer is discovered (Page et al., 1973, p. 543). Discovery of the Urals placers thus was followed by exploration of the original lode deposits, 11 associated with ultramafic dunite-clinopyroxenite-gabbro intrusions (Rudashevskiy, 1987, p. 466, 472). Reflection seismic, gravity, and magnetic surveys have traced the structural affiliation of major plutons in the Ural Platinum Belt with extensively sheared, eastward-dipping rocks of the Main Ural Thrust Belt (Sokolov, 1990, p. 54) (see Fig. 2). Analysis of the deep structure shows these gabbroid massifs to be rootless and detached, evidently having been sheared and thrust significantly westward away from original magma conduits. The gabbros were apparently reheated during thrusting, flushed by stratal waters, and metamorphosed to "hot tectonites formed by plastic flow and crushing"

(Ibid., p. 59). Other deposits Despite Russia's status as the world's secondranking producer of PGM, the Russians apparently do not believe that palladium-rich output at Noril'sk-Talnakh is yielding sufficient fractions of the other PGM to accommodate longterm future demand. Consequently, exploration for additional deposits has intensified since the mid-1980s, when demand for osmium and iridium increased substantially (IMR, October 8-15, 1993, p. 7). As might be expected, the n

Attempts to mine the original lode deposits in the 1920s were not successful (Adams, 1983, p. 547).

99

RUSSIA'S PLATINUM-GROUP METALS

prospecting has focused not on polymetallic sulfide ores in lode deposits, but on platinumbearing placers. Among the most promising finds is the Konder River placer deposit in Khabarovsk Kray, purportedly described by Russian specialists as "unique in world terms both by its size and its reserves" (Ibid., p. 8). Exploration was completed in 1987, with alluvial platinum content reported at 1.578 g/m 3 . The deposit is described as being particularly rich in osmium and iridium (see Table 1). Several other placers have been found in northern Khabarovsk Kray and in Kamchatka. Officials of the State Committee for Geology and Underground Resources (Roskomnedra) have announced the discovery of two platinoid placers on the northern part of the peninsula in the Karyak district—on the Laterinovaya and Ledyanaya rivers. Preliminary exploration, which commenced in July 1993, revealed that Laterinovaya had a width of 300-400 m and alluvial platinum contents ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 g/m 3 . "Reserves" have been estimated at 15 tons of PGM (Ibid.): The Koryak okrug administration and the Kamchatka Geology Committee have announced a tender for the development rights to still another placer-based producing area— the Galmoenav-Seinav node along the Letyrinyvayam River. The site is located in Olyutorskiy Rayon of the Koryak okrug, 100 km NE of the coastal settlement of Tillichiki (IMR, January 21-28,1994, p. 10). The tender winner is to have the right to explore and develop the deposit for a period of 25 years, provided it also agrees to finance efforts to locate the parent lode deposit. As of mid-March 1994, five firms had submitted bids. "Forecast reserves" are 4.7 tons (IMR, March 18-25, 1994, p. 5).

Outlook At present, total world resources of PGM are substantial when compared to demand, with reserves being about seven times the forecast of cumulative demand over the period from 1983 to 2000 (Loebenstein, 1985, p. 614). Thus, output at a global scale is expected to be influenced by the economics of mining (ratio of price to production cost) rather than by the physical availability of these metals. If one

Nizhniy Tagil 5

In

I' >

ll I I 10 km

I I

4-

Pervoural'sk

+

M+

+

ill J

5

s

+ i=g * +

_±.

15

FlG. 2. Sketch map of a portion of the platinum-bearing zone on the eastern slope of the Middle Urals. 1 = ancient strata: Ordovician (a) and Precambrian (b); 2 = strata of Main Ural Thrust Zone; 3 = volcanic and volcanosedimentary rocks in greenstone trough; 4 = gabbro massifs of the Platinum Belt (I = Tagil, II = Revda); 5 = granitoids of the Upper Iset massif; 6 = diorites and granodiorites; 7 = serpentinites; 8 = seismic reflection profiles crossing gabbro massifs. The remaining map unit (gamma symbols on a clear background) is not identified, but may represent volcano-sediments within the volcanic rocks of the greenstone trough.

assumes that the economic situation in Russia eventually might stabilize, domestic demand should rise by virtue of major programs to modernize automobile production (catalytic converters), oil refining (catalytic cracking and

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reforming), and the manufacture of biomedical supplies and pharmaceuticals (and other osmium and iridium applications). Whether increased domestic consumption would reduce export levels and, consequently, earnings derived from exports of a commodity that has served as an important source of foreign exchange for roughly a century, depends upon both (1) the quantity and composition of PGM resources that are discovered and brought into production in Russia and (2) demand patterns and production trends elsewhere in the world. REFERENCES Adams, Russel B., 1983, Nickel and platinum in the Soviet Union, in Jensen, Robert G., Shabad, Theodore, and Wright, Arthur W., eds., Soviet natural resources in the world economy: London and Chicago, University of Chicago Press, p. 536-555. Bond, Andrew R., 1983, Noril'sk: Profile of a Soviet arctic development project: Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 491 p. , 1984, Economic development at Noril'sk: Soviet Geography, v. 25, p. 354-368. Bond, Andrew R., and Levine, Richard M., 1989, Air pollution problem at Monchegorsk continues: Soviet Geography, v. 30, p. 255-261. Distler, V V, Filimonova, A. A., Grokhovskaya, T. L., and Laputina, LP., 1990, Platinum-group elements in the copper-nickel ores of the Pechenga ore field: INT. GEOL. REV., V. 32, p. 70-83.

Godlevskiy, M. N., 1959, On the origin of copper-nickel sulfide deposits on the Siberian Platform: Geologiya rudnykh mestorozhdeniy, no. 2, p. 17-30 (in Russian). Levine, Richard M., 1993, Mineral industries of Central Eurasia—1992, in U. S. Bureau of Mines, Mining

annual review 1993. Washington, DC, U. S. Government Printing Office (reprint). Loebenstein, J. Roger, 1985, Platinum-group metals, in U. S. Bureau of Mines, Mineral facts and problems: Washington, DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, p. 595-616. Page, Norman J., Clark, Allen L., Desborough, George A., and Parker, Raymond L., 1973, Platinum-group metals, in Brobst, Donald A., and Pratt, Walden P., eds., United States mineral resources (Geological Survey Professional Paper 820): Washington, DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, p. 537-545. Rudashevskiy, N. S., 1987, Origin of the various types of platinoid mineralization in ultramafic rocks: INT. GEOL. REV., V. 29, p. 465-480.

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