Characteristics of selenium and tellurium distribution in mineral associations of ores of the Priorsk deposit

Pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and sphalerite are the principal carriers of tellurium, in an ore body which lies at the contact of hydrothennally altered rocks (albite-sericite-quartz and chlorite-quartz) with their host diabases and spilites. Selenium, variable as it is, shows a definite preference of chalcopyrite-pyritic and chalcopyrite-pyrite-pyrrhotite associations. Selenium increases consistently from the hanging wall to the footwall of the ore body, except in the magnetitic association, where it is inordinately low. The Priorskoye ores are somewhat higher in selenium and are much poorer in tellurium than the other pyritic ore in Southern and Middle Ural. — V.P. Sokoloff