GARNET AND RARE-METALS RESOURCES OF THE VYSOTA-181 ORE OCCURRENCE, NORTH KARELIA

A metamorphogenetic-metasomatic garnet ore occurrence, known as Vysota-181, is located in the Louhi District, Russian Karelia, which is part of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The study of the ore occurrence has revealed many productive rock varieties. Various types of garnet ore have bee...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Main Authors: Александр Геннадьевич Никифоров, Андрей Михайлович Ручьев, Aleхandеr Nikiforov, Andrey Ruchyov
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Russian
Published: Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2019
Subjects:
Q
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.17076/geo1104
https://doaj.org/article/8ff21cc735d7487293df76e935606f75
Description
Summary:A metamorphogenetic-metasomatic garnet ore occurrence, known as Vysota-181, is located in the Louhi District, Russian Karelia, which is part of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The study of the ore occurrence has revealed many productive rock varieties. Various types of garnet ore have been identified, based on their distribution, mineral composition and industrial properties. Garnet is considered as a promising complex non-radioactive source of critical strategic rare-earth metals (TR = Y+La+Ce+…+Lu) and scandium. The micro-component chemical composition of the garnet from its concentrates derived from various ore types was analyzed. It has been shown that pyralspitic garnet from sialic ore varieties contains economic concentrations of scandium (Sc203 – 177.3–196.8 g/t), a major useful component, and that yttrium-group elements (YTR = Y+Sm+…+Lu) predominate in the composition of associated TR (TR203 – 130.2–139.2 g/t, the percentage of YTR203 is 91.6–97.2 %). The rare-metals concentration (RМ) in garnet from apobasic ores (Sc203 – 72.2 g/t, TR203 – 163.3 g/t) is below the minimum economic concentration. The predicted resources of garnet and RМ in the various ore types composing the rock massif which could be quarried by the open-pit method were estimated. Garnet resources in mafic ores are 5.582 Мt, RМ resources in the garnet are (t): Sc203 – 403, TR203 – 911, including Y203 – 557, YTR203 – 871. The total garnet resources with economic scandium concentrations in the sialic ores of various types are 5.633 Мt, RМ resources in the garnet (t) are: Sc203 – 1099, TR203 – 776, including YTR203 – 714, Y203 – 468. Vysota-181 is a medium-sized ore occurrence, based on predicted scandium resources in garnet from sialic ores.