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Mobility of palladium chloride complexes in mafic rocks: insights from a flow-through experiment at 25 °C using air-saturated, acidic, and Cl-rich solutions

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Summary

A flow-through chromatographic experiment was carried out to determine the ability of an oxidized, acidic, chloride-bearing solution to transport Pd through a column of crushed Columbia River basalt at 25 °C. An initial plug of solution containing 13.8 mg Pd/kg H2O was loaded onto the column of crushed basalt and eluted with an air-saturated, 1 m NaCl solution of pH 3. Even after 3606 h of elution, corresponding to a fluid-rock mass ratio of 1338, less than 10% of the Pd originally loaded on the column was recovered. On the other hand, in a similar experiment involving relatively unreactive quartz sand, the Pd was almost completely recovered after the passage of only 4 pore masses of eluent (or a fluid-rock mass ratio of approximately one), a behavior similar to that of Rb. The results suggest that unrealistically large amounts of oxidizing and acidic fluids are required to react with a given mass of basalt in order to overcome the acid- and redox-buffering capacity of the rock and to mobilize palladium as a chloride complex. On the other hand, Pd-chloride complexes can be easily transported through a rock with minimal acid- and redox-buffering capacity, such as clean quartz sandstone. The implications of this study for PGE enrichments in sediment-hosted stratiform copper (Kupferschiefer type) deposits are explored briefly.

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  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA

    S. A. Wood

  2. Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    C. Normand

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Authors’ addresses: Scott A. Wood, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Idaho, Box 443022, Moscow, Idaho 83844-3022, USA; Charles Normand, Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec à Montréal, Case postale 8888, Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal (Québec), H3C 3P8 Canada

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Wood, S., Normand, C. Mobility of palladium chloride complexes in mafic rocks: insights from a flow-through experiment at 25 °C using air-saturated, acidic, and Cl-rich solutions. Mineralogy and Petrology 92, 81–97 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-007-0193-5

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