Linnavaara, Pitkyaranta mining district, Pitkyarantsky District, Republic of Karelia, Russiai

Regional Level Types
Linnavaara	Pegmatite (Uncertain)
Pitkyaranta mining district	Mining District (Abandoned)
Pitkyarantsky District	District
Republic of Karelia	Republic
Russia	Country

Granite pegmatite. A large body of pegmatite (ceramic) steeply dipping in the eastern points is currently almost excavated up to a horizon of 60 m. The quarry (5 ledges) is mothballed, but since reclamation is not provided, it can be assumed that it will be available for free visiting for a long time. The bottom of the quarry is flooded, the lower ledge is flooded.

Pegmatite is complex, multi-stage, zonal, showing no genetic connection with the studied igneous complexes of the region. Pegmatite does not have any interesting mineralogical and geochemical specialization. Of the features, it can be noted that its inner zones are quite strongly enriched in sulfide matter. For example, in the hanging side of a massive quartz core there are miniature cavities (up to several cubic decimeters) with crystals of potassium feldspar, overgrown with a cellular aggregate of sheath-shaped pyrrhotite crystals. In some areas, very attractive “graphics” are noted (although there is no sustained graphic zone in the structure of the pegmatite body). The lower ledges of the quarry are visited by local stone lovers for pinkish quartz, and greenish muscovite "ores". Of the accessory minerals, grayish-green and greenish-yellow beryls come across. Tourmalines, apatite, and Ta-Nb minerals are described. In the zone of southern contact, where high-alumina shales gradually pass into pegmatite rocks through migmatization and granitization, almandine is widely developed. Well-formed almandine crystals, up to two centimeters in size, are associated with "nests" of muscovite in coarse-grained granite.

host rocks. The deposit is confined to the western flank of a submeridional synclinal structure, composed of a complex of rocks represented by amphibole schists and shearing amphibolites, among which interlayers of biotite gneisses and granite-gneisses are found in a subordinate amount. The latter are observed mainly in the lower part of the section. In the upper part of the section of the volcanogenic-sedimentary complex, layers of graphitic shales up to 3-5 m thick, as well as plagio-diopside skarn rocks, are encountered.

In hydrothermal-metasomatic veins (skarn-like rocks and hastingsite-quartz formations) there are: andradite, crusts of bright scarlet almandine along selvages, crystals of greenish-brown sphene up to 5 centimeters, bluish scapolite with a predominance of meionite component, augite crystals, calcite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite. The massive difference of scapolite at the contact with pyrrhotite acquires an unusual, pronounced blue iridescence.
As the pegmatite moves away from the body, the degree of metasomatic alteration of rocks decreases. In an outcrop located 300 meters southeast of the contact, in the road cut of the route to Pryazha (the new Sortavala-Petrozavodsk route, towards Petrozavodsk, “on the contrary, through the intersection”), plagio-eye-quartz-biotite schists, typical of the Kitelskoye deposit, emerge almandine. A slight difference from the latter, which can presumably be associated with hydrothermal impact at such a distance from pegmatite, is that the proportion of large, relatively well-formed almandine crystals is higher here than on the “tunics”. Also, relative to classical sections, the density of development of late quartz veinlets along the section and the appearance of sheaf-like amphibole aggregates in these veinlets are higher.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References