Detailed information
Species
Palladinite, Rhodian Isoferroplatinum, Laurite
Dimensions
25 x 25 x 1
mm
Weight
2 g
Locality
Mount Bol’shaya Varaka Imandra layered complex Murmansk Oblast, Russia
Condition
No recorded repairs
A very thin polished section used for reflected light studies. The Mount Bol’shaya Varaka area hosts the Imandra layered complex which contains hydrothermal platinum group minerals. This polished section is described as containing Palladinite, Rhodian Isoferroplatinum, Tetraferroplatinum, 'an unknown PGE oxide', Laurite, an 'FeNi alloy' and Ferronickelplatinum. The mineralization is in a 14 x 7 mm slice embedded within the thin resin mount. The overall specimen size quoted is for the whole polished mount. This style of polished mount requires a specialist reflected light microscope in order to study the grains and the reflectance produced by metallic minerals under plane polarized and cross polarized light. This is not our usual type of specimen, but included due to its rarity.
