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Maleevskoye, Maleyev, Maleeva, Maleevsky, Maleev
Kazakhstan
Main commodities: Cu Zn


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Maleevskoye (also known as Maleyev, Maleevsky, Maleeva, Maleev or Maleevskoe) is located 18 km east of the town of Zyryanovsk and is one of the large volcanic hosted sulphide deposits of the Rudny Altay Volcanic Arc of eastern Kazakhstan. It is a massive sulphide deposit with unusually high grades for the Rudny Altay district. The deposit is located ~75 km SE of Ridder and ~120 km ESE of Oskemen (#Location: 49° 52' 40"N, 84° 15' 48"E).

Production from 2001 onwards has been of the order of 2.25 Mtpa, with an average ore grade of 5.96% Zn, 1.79% Cu, 1.13% Pb, 0.56 g/t Au, 69.94 g/t Ag, (Kazzinc website, 2011).

The Maleevskoye deposit is located on the western limb of the Maleevsko-Putintsevskaya anticline, the core of which is occupied by the predominantly felsic tuffs and tuffites of the Revniushinskaya Formation, and progressively overlain by calcareous siltstones, argillites and sandstones of the Maslyanskaya Formation; interbedded siltstones, argillite and sandstones of the Khamirskaya Formation; and the carbonaceous argillites and siltstones of the Turgusunskaya Series. A complex of quartz porphyry, quartz-feldspar porphyry, felsite and felsite porphyry sills and extrusives occurs within the Revniushinskaya and Maslyanskaya formations. The western limb of the anticline abuts plutons of granite, tonalite and diorite of the Schebniushinsky intrusive massif, while further to the south, an elongate mass of gabbro and dolerite intrudes the eastern limb.

The Maleevsko-Putintsevskaya anticline forms the northern closure of the complex, variably plunging, Revniushinskaya anticlinorium. The generally NNW-SSE trending anticlinorial axis has been modified by crossfolding resulting in both its southern closure ~30 km to the SSE of Maleevskoye, and the superimposition of other oblique folds alongs its limbs with a variety of plunge azimuths. The anticlinorium covers an area of 250 km2 and contains six other polymetallic deposits. The largest of these were the now exhausted Zyryanovsk and Grekhovskiy deposits 17.5 km to the south and 25.5 km to the SSE of Maleevskoye respectively. Other smaller deposits include, from north to south Putintsevskoye, Mayskoye, Beloglinsk and Bogatyrevskoye. All of these deposits are hosted by Middle Devonian volcano-sedimentary rocks and are closely associated with sills of quartz-plagioclase porphyry and felsite related to either submarine volcanic or sub-volcanic activity. The Maleevskoye and Grekhovskiy deposits occur at the northern and southern closure of the Revniushinskaya anticlinorium respectively, whilst Zyryanovsk is concentrated in a westerly plunging crossfold anticline. The other deposits occur along the eastern and western limbs of the main anticlinorium.

The Maleevskoye deposit comprises seven volcanic hosted stratabound zones of lead-zinc-copper-gold-silver mineralisation, namely: Maleevskaya, Rodnikovaya, Holodnaya, Lugovaya, Bobrovskaya, Platovskaya and Octyabrskaya. These occur at three stratigraphic levels within a 600 to 700 m interval of the Revniushinskaya and Maslovskaya Formations. Mineralisation is confined to broad mushroom-shaped brecciated domes which pass downwards into steeply dipping stockwork feeder channels, that are generally aligned along NW-trending fractures. The stratabound bodies generally strike 300 to 310°, parallel to axial traces of the domes, dipping at low to moderate angles to the SW and plunging NW.

Mineralisation has been classified on the basis of Pb content as either polymetallic (lead-zinc with >0.6% Pb) and copper-zinc (high Cu with <0.6% Pb). The polymetallic mineralisation, accompanied by barite, generally occurs on the flanks and on the hanging wall side of the deposts, while copper-zinc mineralisation tends to be found in the central parts of the lenses and on the footwall.

The largest and highest-grade zones (Maleevskaya, Rodnikovaya, Holodnaya and Lugovaya) are restricted to the 150 to 200 m thick Maleevskoye Member of the Maslovskaya Formation, and comprise stratabound massive sulphide bodies with various morphologies (saddles, lenses, tabular bodies) that pass downward into veinlet/disseminated mineralisation. The upper boundary to mineralisation is usually sharp, although veinlet-disseminated mineralisation may locally be found above the massive sulphides. The footwall boundary is generally gradational with massive sulphide bodies, passing into fracture-fill veinlets and replacements cementing hydrothermal breccias. The hanging wall is occupied by brecciated rhyolite, porphyritic andesite sills and dykes and lesser hydrothermal quartzites.

Veinlet-disseminated mineralisation that defines the Bobrovskaya and Platovskaya zones, occurs within the Platovsky level, 100 to 150 m below the Maleevskoye level in the hinge zone of the Maleevsko-Putintsevska anticline. This style of mineralisation characteristically has poor continuity and erratic metal grades.

Veinlet-disseminated mineralisation of the Octyabrskiy zone and level is hosted by mottled slates at and below the interface of the Revniushinskaya and Maslovskaya Formations. A further level of veinlet-disseminated mineralisation has been encountered in the middle of the Revniushinskaya Formation, 50 to 150 m below the Octyabrskiy level, occurring in quartz rhyolites and andesite-dacite porphyries, and is also characterised by erratic grades and poor continuity.

The Maleevskaya zone occurs as a complicated series of folded stratabound lenses that have been traced to a depth of 700 to 750 m, with an overall strike of 315° and a 32 to 35°NW plunge. The combined strike length is 2.3 km, with the largest mineralised body being 1.175 km long, extending from the +430 to 170 m levels. Its larger northwestern segment is 575 m in strike length with a down-dip extent of up to 250 m. Dips are highly variable but generally less than 40°SW, flattening and turning NE on the northwestern end. The southeastern segment is about 410 m in strike length and extends down-dip for up to 195 m with an average dip is 20 to 25°SW.

The Rodnikovaya zone is the main mineralized mass at the Maleevskoye deposit. It extends down a dome structure plunging at 25 to 30° to the northwest, with a total strike length is 1.750 km. The zone includes 18 stratabound ore lenses with complicated forms that are the result of folding and cross-cutting dykes. Orebodies 6 and 7, which hold the bulk of the Maleevskoye resource, represent a single, predominantly massive sulphide body cut by a dyke of porphyritic dolerite and its apophyses. Orebody 6 is located above a steeply dipping porphyrite dyke. It dips at ~35°WSW and plunges 27°NNW, with a vertical span of 434 m. Orebody 7 is found below the dioritic porphyrite dyke, dipping at 36°WSW and plunging at 23°NNW, with a vertical span of 383 m. The combined strike length of both orebodies 6 and 7 exceeds 1.50 km, with a combined true width of 120 to 380 m and horizontal breadth of up to 900 m in the centre of the zone. The ore zone has a pronounced vertical mineral zonation, comprising from top to bottom: i) Thin discontinuous pyritic zone along the hanging wall; ii) Barite-lead-zinc mineralisation; iii) Zinc mineralisation; iv) Pyrite-polymetallic mineralisation with barite; v) Pyrite-copper-zinc mineralisation; vi) Copper-pyrite mineralisation, and vii) Pyritic zone in the footwall (0.5 to 7 m) passing down into disseminated pyrite.

Massive sulphides in the Rodnikovaya zone, which are represented by pyritic-polymetallic, copper-zinc and barite-bearing varieties, are best developed in Orebody 6, accounting for >70% of the ore zone, while disseminated ore occurs mostly in the footwall and on the flanks. The footwall contact is transitional, with the pyritic zone passing into microquartzites with relict bedding and disseminated syngenetic pyrite (0.001 to 0.05 mm) that forms bands and small lenses. These rocks are cut by steep feeder channels marked by brecciation with quartz-sericite-chlorite alteration and cubic pyrite (0.04 to 0.1 mm). In contrast, the hanging wall contact with rhyolites, siltstones and porphyritic andesites is sharp with no, or very weak alteration.

The Bobrovskaya zone is situated southwest of the Rodnikovaya Zone at a depth of 1.0 to 1.5 km below the surface and comprises at least three lenticular bodies over a strike length of 1.75 km.

The Octyabrskaya zone is situated a short distance to the northeast of the Maleevskaya Zone, and is bowl shaped with a strike length is 600 m, dipping west and northwest.

The Holodnaya zone is the deepest discovered to date at the Maleevskoye deposit, located at a depth of 1.4 to 1.7 km below the surface, 2 km from the central part of the Rodnikovaya Zone. It has a strike length of 1.5 km, and is bounded by intrusive rocks of the Schebniushinskiy massif. Drilling has intersected rich massive pyritic-polymetallic mineralisation and lower grade veinlet-type mineralisation.

The Platovskaya zone occurs within a NNW trending subsidiary structure situated in the northeastern part of the Maleevskoye deposit, 700 m from the Maleevskaya Zone. It extends over a vertical interval of about 120 m with widths of between 5.5 and 23 m (averaging 6 m), plunging at 20°NW.

The dominant metalliferous minerals are pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and galena. Tetrahedrite/tennantite with pyrrhotite and magnetite occur in subordinate quantities. Accessories include native gold, silver, antimony, bismuth, electrum, bismuthite, molybdenite, cobaltine and pyrargyrite. The principal gangue minerals are quartz, chlorite, calcite, barite, actinolite, tremolite and less common sericite, albite, epidote and biotite.

Mineral Resources (JORC Compliant) for all orebodies in 2005 were:
Measured + indicated: 23.96 Mt @ 1.14% Pb, 6.87% Zn, 2.18% Cu, 0.60 g/t Au, 71.79 g/t Ag, 3.70% Ba;
Inferred: 4.87 Mt @ 1.58% Pb, 4.99% Zn, 0.97% Cu, 0.25 g/t Au, 47.49 g/t Ag, 2.37% Ba;

Conventional ore reserves in 2005 were stated at:
Polymetallic ore: 19.294 Mt @ 2.55% Pb, 13.70% Zn, 1.97% Cu, 0.87 g/t Au, 125.81 g/t Ag;
Copper-zinc ore: 20.105 Mt @ 0.28% Pb, 3.84% Zn, 3.15% Cu, 0.59 g/t Au, 40.08 g/t Ag;

Geostatistical resources in 2005 were stated at:
Polymetallic ore: 28.084 Mt @ 2.11% Pb, 10.31% Zn, 2.22% Cu, 0.86 g/t Au, 93.71 g/t Ag;
Copper-zinc ore: 14.619 Mt @ 0.34% Pb, 4.14% Zn, 2.69% Cu, 0.62 g/t Au, 57.91 g/t Ag.

The information in this summary is largely sourced from: Newell et al., 2011 - Competent Person's Report for the Assets held by Kazzinc Limited in Kazakhstan and Russia; prepared by Wardell Armstrong International, Truro, UK.

Resources and reserves in 2012 (Halyk Finance report, Dec. 2012, sourced from Kazzinc reports) were:
    Mineral Resources - 28.83 Mt @ 2.2% Cu, 6.6% Zn, 1.2% Pb 67.7 g/t Ag, 0.5 g/t Au;
    Ore reserves - 12.1 Mt @ 1.8% Cu, 6.4% Zn, 1.0% Pb 61.2 g/t Ag, 0.5 g/t Au.

Remaining Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources at 31 December 2019 (Glencore Reserves and Resources Report, 2019) were:
    Measured + Indicated Mineral Resources - 7.0 Mt @ 2.1% Cu, 6.3% Zn, 1.1% Pb 74 g/t Ag, 0.5 g/t Au;
    Inferred Mineral Resources - 2.2 Mt @ 2% Cu, 6% Zn, 1% Pb 59 g/t Ag, 0.5 g/t Au;
    Proved + Probable Ore reserves - 6.1 Mt @ 1.5% Cu, 4.4% Zn, 0.8% Pb 52 g/t Ag, 0.3 g/t Au.
NOTE: Mineral Resources are inclusive of Ore Reserves.

The most recent source geological information used to prepare this decription was dated: 2011.     Record last updated: 24/9/2020
This description is a summary from published sources, the chief of which are listed below.
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Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd (PorterGeo) provides access to this database at no charge.   It is largely based on scientific papers and reports in the public domain, and was current when the sources consulted were published.   While PorterGeo endeavour to ensure the information was accurate at the time of compilation and subsequent updating, PorterGeo, its employees and servants:   i). do not warrant, or make any representation regarding the use, or results of the use of the information contained herein as to its correctness, accuracy, currency, or otherwise; and   ii). expressly disclaim all liability or responsibility to any person using the information or conclusions contained herein.

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