Selenojunoite discovered at the Srednyaya Padma uranium-vanadium deposit on the Zaonezhsky Peninsula
A new mineral called selenojunoite, discovered in Karelia, can serve as an indicator of deposits of rare and valuable metals that geologists are likely to discover. This was reported to TASS by Pavel Plechov, director of the A. E. Fersman Mineralogical Museum and professor of the Geological Faculty of Moscow State University.
Selenojunoite was discovered at the Srednyaya Padma uranium-vanadium deposit on the Zaonezhsky Peninsula, in a hard-to-reach area of Karelia, and was approved as a new mineral by the Commission on New Minerals of the International Mineralogical Association. Science was familiar with the mineral junoite, which contains a large amount of sulfur, but selenojunoite contains selenium instead of sulfur.
“Every new mineral deposit contains mineral diversity. And the minerals found there are indicators of the geological conditions in which this deposit was formed. In the future, if you find such a mineral, you can find a new deposit after it. Selenojunoite can become an indicator of many rare metals,” Plechov said.
As the scientist explained, there have been several expeditions to the Srednyaya Padma region since the 1970s. The latest expeditions, already in the 2020s, were organized by the Fersman Mineralogical Museum, with the participation of colleagues from the Karelian Research Center (KarRC). The leading role in the discovery, as Plechov noted, belongs to the leading researcher of the museum Viktor Gekimyants, and Oleg Lavrov, a researcher at the KarRC, took an active part. The scientists took with them samples from the collection of the Geological Faculty of Moscow State University, as well as from the collection of the now deceased veteran of the Geological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University Yuri Polekhovsky.
Selenojunoite itself is a dark steel-gray mineral, found in the form of irregularly shaped inclusions. As for its own properties, as Professor Plechov explained, it is too early to judge which of them will prove useful. “A new mineral is studied for several years, this is far from a quick process. In science, there are cases when a mineral was discovered that in itself did not bring practical benefits, but then it turned out that it had some unusual properties. And if it itself is rare, synthetic materials with the same properties are made by analogy with it,” the scientist said.
The Fersman Mineralogical Museum, as Plechov recalled, is the world’s leading organization discovering new minerals – its employees discover about 20 minerals a year, which is about 20% of newly discovered minerals in the world.