East Scandinavian and Noril’sk plume mafic large igneous provinces of Pd-Pt ores: Geological and metallogenic comparison

This paper compares the geological, geophysical, and isotopic geochemical data on the Paleoproterozoic East Scandinavian Pd-Pt province in the Baltic Shield and the Late Paleozoic Noril’sk Pd-Pt province in the Siberian Craton. Both provinces contain large magmatic PGE deposits: low-sulfide in the Baltic Shield and high-sulfide in the Siberian Craton. Multidisciplinary evidence shows that the East Scandinavian mafic large igneous province, which has a plume nature, is intracratonic and was not subjected to the crucial effect of subduction-related and other contamination processes, whereas the Noril’sk province is pericratonic with substantial crustal contamination of the intrusive processes. Low-sulfide Pd-Pt deposits dominate in the East Scandinavian province, while high-sulfide Ni-Cu-PGE deposits play the leading role in the Noril’sk province. The U-Pb, Sm-Nd, and Rb-Sr isotopic data indicate multistage and long-term (tens of millions of years) geological history of mafic large igneous provinces. The plume magmatism with specific geochemistry and metallogeny is probably related to lower mantle sources.