Deep Structure of the Noril’sk Region and Distribution of the Ore Formations

Abstract The northern part of the Siberian platform and the Taimyr epi-platformal fold system, which are separated by the Yeneseisko-Khatangsky Rift, belong to the Precambrian North Asian superplatform [106]. The major metallogenic features are deposits of the North Siberian nickel-bearing area. The mineralization of the Noril’sk region, which is attributed to evolution of a mantle picritoidal melt, is a unique phenomenon, which has no analogues within the region. The ultramafic/mafic products of the nickel-bearing magmatism of the Noril’sk region are closely associated with trap and later magmatism which is spatially and genetically connected with various deposits that are associated with specific magmatic complexes. The present interpretation of the deep structure, evolution of magmatism and endogenic ore formation of the region is based on results of recent complex geological and geophysical [1, 15, 22, 45, 109, 1l7, 128, 138] and metallogenic [20, 33, 37, 60, 85, 106, 135] studies. The northern part of the Siberian platform, as well as the Southern Taimyr fold belt, being the relict constituent elements of the northern Asian craton, have developed as a result of multiple, but mainly late Hercynian, autonomous activity, as seen in the intense rifting. The North Asian craton extended from the Ural belt to Verkhoyanya, and from the Northzemelsky archipelago up to the Sayan (mountains). In Archean and Early Proterozoic times this vast terrain was a fold-belt which was later split by aulacogenes into huge blocks that developed during the Riphean and Paleozoic as a unique, gigantic structure. The trap field of