HALOGENIC FORMATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE OF NOBLE METALS
The paper presents an opinion that sea water, brines of continental water reservoirs, subsurface basins and, firstly, deposits of potassium-magnesium salts should be objects of system studies, as probable alternative sources of gold and platinoids, that could be utilized at the same time, when desalting the sea water, or when processing potassium-magnesium (K-Mg) salts and brines. A suggestion is advanced that gypsum caprocks of potassium-bearing salt domes represented by eluvial sediments of eroded salt strata, as well as the industrial slime formed as a result of salt treatment at the Verkhnekamsk salt deposit could also be regarded as sources of noble metals and considered as a new type of deposits of these metals. It is proposed to treat noble metals associated with the halogenic environment, as noble metals of the halogenic formation.