Maier, Wolfgang D.  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8654-6658, Barnes, S.-J., Gartz, V. and Andrews, G.
2003.
Pt-Pd reefs in magnetitites of the Stella layered intrusion, South Africa: A world of new exploration opportunities for platinum group elements.
Geology
31
(10)
, pp. 885-888.
10.1130/G19746.1
|
Abstract
The 3033 Ma Stella layered intrusion of South Africa consists largely of magnetite gabbros and gabbros that are hosted by greenstones of the Kraaipan belt. The intrusion contains a 100-m-thick, platinum group element (PGE)–enriched interval that includes a number of laterally continuous PGE reefs constituting the oldest mineralization of this type known on Earth. The richest of the reefs is hosted by magnetitite and contains 10–15 ppm Pt + Pd over 1 m, representing by far the highest PGE grades known up to this time in magnetitite-hosted Pt-Pd reefs. The PGEs are interpreted to have been concentrated by sulfide melt, after S saturation had been reached in the advanced stages of magmatic differentiation, in response to magnetite crystallization. Reaction between sulfide melt and oxides led to late magmatic S loss, causing a paucity of sulfides in most of the PGE mineralized interval. As a result, the reefs cannot be distinguished macroscopically from their unmineralized host rocks, and we suggest that similar mineralization may have been overlooked in the upper parts of other tholeiitic intrusions elsewhere.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Status: | Published |
| Schools: | Schools > Earth and Environmental Sciences |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QE Geology |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Stella intrusion; platinum group elements; South Africa; greenstone belts; magnetite |
| Publisher: | Geological Society of America |
| ISSN: | 0091-7613 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Oct 2022 08:59 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/56736 |
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