The Role of Gold, Silver, and Lead Nanoparticles in the Formation of Deposits of Precious Metals

摘要

The Clarke concentration of gold in rocks of the Earth's crust is ～4 ppb, and its average concentration in ores of the deposits of precious metals is thousands of times higher. Nanosize gold dominates in rocks, but ores usually contain a wide spectrum of gold minerals with variable sizes and composition. Because of this, hydrothermal Au-Ag deposits may be characterized by the duration of their formation with incoming heat and matter at definite thermodynamic parameters favorable for accumulation of precious metals.