Gold-ilmenite deposits of the Sikhote-Alin (Primorye) as promising sources of strategic metals

Abstract

Placer gold was mined in Primorye long before the arrival of the first Russian explorers from the time of the Bohai kingdom (VIII-X centuries). The centuries-old exploitation of precious metal deposits led to the depletion of their geological reserves, which could not but affect the sharp decline in production volumes. At the same time, there are good reasons to believe that the gold potential of the region is far from being exhausted. We need new approaches to forecasting, prospecting and developing sources of mineral resources. These alternative sources include complex ore-placer occurrences of strategic metals, in which gold is an associated component. For a long time, the strategic metals include solid types of minerals that are essential for national security. Many of them (titanium, platinum group metals, rare and rare earth elements) are present in ores and placers associated with basic and hyperbasites of Primorye. An example of this is the gold-ilmenite placers of the Ariadne massif of ultramafic rocks. The objective of this research was to assess the possibilities of industrial processing of these placers using pyro-hydrometallurgy methods. For this, the foundations of an integrated technology for extracting useful components were developed. At the initial stage, the initial sands underwent gravity concentration followed by separation by electromagnetic separation into magnetic and non-magnetic fractions. Then titanium dioxide was extracted from the magnetic material represented by ilmenite using the sulfate method. At the final stage, the non-magnetic fraction, including the bulk of the gold, served as the feedstock for the action of the leaching solutions. The proposed technical solutions will expand the prospects for the mineral resource base in the south of the Far Eastern region in compliance with the principles of rational nature management and environmental protection.