GIANT SILVER ORE DEPOSITS OF RUSSIA

Abstract

Resources of giant silver ore deposits found in northeastern Russia are comparable to those of the world's largest deposits such as Potosi (Bolivia) and Guanohuato (Mexico). One of them, e.g., the Dukat deposit, is confined to the outer margin of the central Okhotsk-Chukot volcanogenic belt, while others (the Mangazei and Prognoz deposits) are located in Mesozoides of the western Verkhoyansk region (Fig. 1). These deposits differ in geology, structure, and age, but their silver-sulfide zones are universally restricted to margins of low-angle Carboniferous-Permian-Triasssic structures of the Verkhoyansk Complex. Tilman suggested that sandstones and schists of the Verkhoyansk Complex in these structures developed as specific cover on the subsided cratonic blocks [1].