Institute of Mining, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Khabarovsk, Russia:

N. A. Lavrik, Senior Researcher, lavrik@igd.khv.ru
N. M. Litvinova, Leading Researcher, Candidate of Engineering Sciences
V. F. Stepanova, Engineer–Mineralogist

Mineralogical and technological studies of oxidized ore sampled from the Malmyzh copper–gold porphyry deposit, alongside with sulfides typical of this deposit, revealed gold grains with silver admixture, platinum, platinum–zircon intermetallic compound, diamond crystals and single shots of other native metals such as Al, Zn, Cu, Mo. The presence of diamonds in this deposit ore requires further investigation. Subjected to integrated processing, the Mamlyzh ore can be the source of both base metals Cu, Mо, Au, Ag, Sn, Re, W and associates Pt, Pd, Se, In etc. According to geological data of EMX Royalty Corporation, the north-western Svoboda site of the Mamalyzh deposit holds a diatreme mostly composed by magmatogene–hydrothermal breccias. The areal size of the diatreme is 800×800 m and coincides with the circular magnetic anomaly detected by the recent magnetic studies of the Earth. The diatreme is traced down to a depth of 650–850 m. The Corporation has developed a deep-hole prospecting program to study such diatremes and determine their resource potential. The studies into the mineral composition and optimal processing technologies to recover valuable elements from both oxidized and primary ore of the Malmyzh deposit are continued. The research findings will be presented in further publications.

The study was supported by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Program No. 18–2-015.

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