Mineralogy and prospect of noble metals of gold-bearing ore breccias from ore fields of polymetallic deposits of Ore Altai

The object of the present study are the ore-bearing breccias of the worked-out lower-middle Devonian gold-silver barite-polymetallic Zmeinogorsky deposit belonging to the cognominal ore district and the conserved massive sulfide Chekmar deposit belonging to the Leninogorsk ore district. Both ore districts occupy an adjacent position within the northeastern depression zone of the Ore Altai megatrough. A brief structural and geological description of near-fault ore-bearing breccias, which developed within the peripheral parts of the deposits, is given. Analysis of petrographic composition of breccia fragments and their cementing material allowed to define barite-quartzite breccias of the Zmeinogorsky deposit and pyritized adularia-quartz metasomatites formed upon acidic igneous rocks and greenschists of the Chekmar deposit. Results of mineralogical studies with use of raster electron microscope show that there are ore minerals microinclusions in the detrital material and cement of breccias. Barite-quartzite breccias of Zmeinogorsk deposit contain barite, galena, Hg and Sb containing polymineral formations, tetrahedrite-boulangerite, bromargyrite, leucoxene. Microquartzites of these breccias mostly consist of quartz. Chekmar deposit ore breccias detrital material contains pyrite, barite, arsenopyrite, galena, sphalerite, zircon, titanite, leucoxene and REE minerals. Quartzitic compound of these breccias is cryptocrystalline and consists of quartz and adularia with admixtures of sericite and pyrite. Due to results obtained by use of SEM it was stated that barite, sulfides and sulfosalts of breccias contain noticeable amounts of dissipated Au, Pd, Pt, Ir. ICP-MS results confirm that studied ore breccias contain such noble metals as Au, Ag, Pd, Pt. Moreover, noble metals contents in Zmeinogorsk deposit breccias reach industrial standards while noble metals of Chekmar deposit ores can be extracted along with the processing of basic massive sulfide ores. Further study of ore breccias is important as these breccias can be considered as a noble metals containing subformation among polymetallic ores of Ore Altai

U-Pb geochronology of subvolcanic and pyroclastic formations of the Zmeinogorsk barite-polymetallic deposit (Rudny Altai)

Schemes of Zmeinogorsk ore field structure made in 1996, 1960 and 1949 have been analyzed. The schemes differ from each other in contents and prospecting trends. This study is based on the 1949 scheme, made on the basis of the results of extensive mining and drilling operations. Based on the analysis of stratigraphy, LA-Q-ICP-MS dating results by U-Pb method, rocks composition, plicative and disjunctive dislocations of sedimentary, volcanic and subvolcanic formations, as well as their relationship, an updated scheme of Zmeinogorsk ore field structure is suggested. It belongs to rhyolite dome-type, which is also charactered to the neighboring Leninogorsk ore distric

Statistical Mechanics of Vibration-Induced Compaction of Powders

We propose a theory which describes the density relaxation of loosely packed, cohesionless granular material under mechanical tapping. Using the compactivity concept we develope a formalism of statistical mechanics which allows us to calculate the density of a powder as a function of time and compactivity. A simple fluctuation-dissipation relation which relates compactivity to the amplitude and frequency of a tapping is proposed. Experimental data of E.R.Nowak et al. [{\it Powder Technology} 94, 79 (1997) ] show how density of initially deposited in a fluffy state powder evolves under carefully controlled tapping towards a random close packing (RCP) density. Ramping the vibration amplitude repeatedly up and back down again reveals the existence of reversible and irreversible branches in the response. In the framework of our approach the reversible branch (along which the RCP density is obtained) corresponds to the steady state solution of the Fokker-Planck equation whereas the irreversible one is represented by a superposition of "excited states" eigenfunctions. These two regimes of response are analyzed theoretically and a qualitative explanation of the hysteresis curve is offered.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, Latex. Revised tex

Statistical Mechanics of Stress Transmission in Disordered Granular Arrays

We give a statistical-mechanical theory of stress transmission in disordered arrays of rigid grains with perfect friction. Starting from the equations of microscopic force and torque balance we derive the fundamental equations of stress equilibrium. We illustrate the validity of our approach by solving the stress distribution of a homogeneous and isotropic array.Comment: 4 pages, to be published in PR

Genesis of precious metal mineralization in intrusions of ultramafic, alkaline rocks and carbonatites in the north of the Siberian platform

The gold and platinum-group elements (PGE) mineralization of the Guli and Kresty intrusions was formed in the process of polyphase magmatism of the central type during the Permian and Triassic age. It is suggested that native osmium and iridium crystal nuclei were formed in the mantle at earlier high-temperature events of magma generation of the mantle substratum in the interval of 765–545 Ma and were brought by meimechite melts to the area of development of magmatic bodies. The pulsating magmatism of the later phases assisted in particle enlargement. Native gold was crystallized at a temperature of 415–200◦C at the hydrothermal-metasomatic stages of the meimechite, melilite, foidolite and carbonatite magmatism. The association of minerals of precious metals with oily, resinous and asphaltene bitumen testifies to the genetic relation of the mineralization to carbonaceous metasomatism. Identifying the carbonaceous gold and platinoid ore formation associated genetically with the parental formation of ultramafic, alkaline rocks and carbonatites is suggested

Experimental and computational studies of jamming

Jamming is a common feature of out of equilibrium systems showing slow relaxation dynamics. Here we review our efforts in understanding jamming in granular materials using experiments and computer simulations. We first obtain an estimation of an effective temperature for a slowly sheared granular material very close to jamming. The measurement of the effective temperature is realized in the laboratory by slowly shearing a closely-packed ensemble of spherical beads confined by an external pressure in a Couette geometry. All the probe particles, independent of their characteristic features, equilibrate at the same temperature, given by the packing density of the system. This suggests that the effective temperature is a state variable for the nearly jammed system. Then we investigate numerically whether the effective temperature can be obtained from a flat average over the jammed configuration at a given energy in the granular packing, as postulated by the thermodynamic approach to grains.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure

Design, performance, and calibration of CMS forward calorimeter wedges

We report on the test beam results and calibration methods using high energy electrons, pions and muons with the CMS forward calorimeter (HF). The HF calorimeter covers a large pseudorapidity region (3 <= vertical bar eta vertical bar <= 5), and is essential for a large number of physics channels with missing transverse energy. It is also expected to play a prominent role in the measurement of forward tagging jets in weak boson fusion channels in Higgs production. The HF calorimeter is based on steel absorber with embedded fused-silica-core optical fibers where Cherenkov radiation forms the basis of signal generation. Thus, the detector is essentially sensitive only to the electromagnetic shower core and is highly non-compensating (e/h approximate to 5). This feature is also manifest in narrow and relatively short showers compared to similar calorimeters based on ionization. The choice of fused-silica optical fibers as active material is dictated by its exceptional radiation hardness. The electromagnetic energy resolution is dominated by photoelectron statistics and can be expressed in the customary form as a/root E circle plus b. The stochastic term a is 198% and the constant term b is 9%. The hadronic energy resolution is largely determined by the fluctuations in the neutral pion production in showers, and when it is expressed as in the electromagnetic case, a = 280% and b = 11%

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

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