Petrographic and Geochemical Characterization of Ore-Bearing Intrusions of the Noril'sk type, Siberia; With Discussion of Their Origin, Including Additional Datasets and Core Logs

The Noril'sk I, Talnakh, and Kharaelakh intrusions of the Noril'sk district host one of the outstanding metal concentrations in the world; contained Cu-Ni resources are comparable to the deposits at Sudbury, Ontario and the platinum group element (PGE) resource is second only to that of the Bushveld Complex. Our opportunity to cooperatively sample and study this district in Siberian Russia arose in 1990 through a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Geological Survey and the former Ministry of Geology of the U.S.S.R. The world-class significance of these deposits and the possibility that understanding their geologic context, including construction of a credible 'ore-deposit model,' will lead to discovery of similar deposits elsewhere, inspired extensive studies of the ores, the mafic-intrusions which host them, and associated flood basalts.