Transfer of Metals under Hydrothermal Conditions in the Form of Colloidal Particles and Supersaturated True Solutions

Abstract

Colloids of metals have been studied much more poorly in hydrothermal solutions than in surface and underground waters. Nevertheless, literature data indicate that colloidal particles containing metals are present in hydrothermal minerals, in geogas, in groundwaters above orebodies, in fluid inclusions of minerals, and in geothermal solutions. These particles are usually thought to be formed at nucleation in supersaturated solution, which is generated in conversion reactions of minerals or when fluids boil. Published experimental data confirm that colloidal particles can be formed and preserved in hydrothermal conditions. Experimental data on the filtration of supersaturated and colloidal solutions in porous media at elevated temperatures are still too scarce to enable a comprehensive and reasonably accurate assessment of the mobility of colloidal particles under these conditions. The involvement of colloids in the hydrothermal ore-forming process is most clearly manifested at formation of rich epithermal Au deposits. The example of a quartz geothermometer is employed to demonstrate that metals can be transferred in true supersaturated solution, and this mechanism may be even more efficient than colloidal transfer. Metals can thus be transferred in the hydrothermal process in significantly higher concentrations than it follows from the traditional approach based on equilibrium thermodynamics.