Colloform high-purity platinum from the placer deposit of Koura River (Gornaya Shoriya, Russia)

A microinclusion of colloform high-purity platinum in a grain of platinum-group minerals (PGM) from the alluvial gold-bearing placer deposit in the south of Western Siberia (Russia) was detected and characterized for the first time. It is different in composition, texture, and conditions of formation from high-purity platinum of other regions described in the literature. The main characteristics of investigated high-purity platinum are colloform-layered texture, admixture of Fe (0.37–0.78 wt%), and paragenesis of Cu-rich isoferroplatinum, hongshiite, and rhodarsenide. The PGM grain with high-purity platinum is multiphase and heterogeneous in texture. It is a product of intensive metasomatic transformation of Cu-rich isoferroplatinum (Pt3(Fe0.6Cu0.4)). The transformation was carried out in two stages: 1 – copper stage including three substages (Cu-rich isoferroplatinum, copper platinum and hongshiite); and 2 – arsenic (rhodarsenide). The formation of high-purity platinum was separated in time from the formation of isoferroplatinum and was carried out by precipitation from postmagmatic solutions

Abiotic ammonium formation in the presence of Ni-Fe metals and alloys and its implications for the Hadean nitrogen cycle

Experiments with dinitrogen-, nitrite-, nitrate-containing solutions were conducted without headspace in Ti reactors (200°C), borosilicate septum bottles (70°C) and HDPE tubes (22°C) in the presence of Fe and Ni metal, awaruite (Ni80Fe20) and tetrataenite (Ni50Fe50). In general, metals used in this investigation were more reactive than alloys toward all investigated nitrogen species. Nitrite and nitrate were converted to ammonium more rapidly than dinitrogen, and the reduction process had a strong temperature dependence. We concluded from our experimental observations that Hadean submarine hydrothermal systems could have supplied significant quantities of ammonium for reactions that are generally associated with prebiotic synthesis, especially in localized environments. Several natural meteorites (octahedrites) were found to contain up to 22 ppm Ntot. While the oxidation state of N in the octahedrites was not determined, XPS analysis of metals and alloys used in the study shows that N is likely present as nitride (N3-). This observation may have implications toward the Hadean environment, since, terrestrial (e.g., oceanic) ammonium production may have been supplemented by reduced nitrogen delivered by metal-rich meteorites. This notion is based on the fact that nitrogen dissolves into metallic melts