Special Issue "Advances in Rhenium Mineralogy, Geochemistry and Industrial Uses"

Guest Editor
Dr. Panagiotis Voudouris
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Geology & Geoenvironment, Dept. of Mineralogy and Petrology, Panepistimioupolis-Ano Ilisia, 15784 Athens, Greece
Website: http://www.voudouris.org/
E-Mail: voudouris@geol.uoa.gr
Phone: +30 210 7274129
Interests: ore mineralogy; ore deposits geology; geochemistry; mineralogy

Guest Editor
Dr. Vasilios Melfos
Department of Mineralogy, Petrology and Economic Geology, Faculty of Geology, School of Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR-54124, Thessaloniki, Greece
Website: http://users.auth.gr/melfosv
E-Mail: melfosv@geo.auth.gr
Phone: +30 2310 998539
Interests: economic geology; geochemistry; mineralogy and petrography

Rhenium with an average concentration of <1 part per billion is enriched in only few places at the Earth's crust. It is mainly obtained as a by-product of molybdenum and copper refinement from Cu-Mo porphyries and sediment-hosted deposits. Rhenium is among the most expensive metals, with principal application in high-temperature superalloys for use in jet engines. Molybdenite is the major repository of Re in the Earth’s crust. Re-bearing molybdenite with more than 1 wt. % Re, Re-Mo-Cu sulfides and the pure Re-bearing sulfide rheniite have been rarely found in porphyry-style Cu-Mo deposits, in magmatic Cu-Ni deposits and in sublimates of active volcanoes. The purpose of this Special Issue is to intergrate all new information about rhenium mineralogy and geochemistry in diverse types of ores deposits worldwide, highlight the causes of Re-enrichment in various styles of mineralization and present advances on industrial uses of rhenium. On deposit scale, associated ore mineralogy will be tested as a tool for rhenium enrichment and future exploration.

Dr. Panagiotis Voudouris
Dr. Vasilios Melfos
Guest Editors

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• rhenium mineralogy
• molybdenite geochemistry
• ore deposits
• rhenium applications

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Rhenium Nanochemistry for Catalyst Preparation
Authors: Vadim G. Kessler and Gulaim A. Seisenbaeva
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, SLU, Box 7015, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden; E-Mails: Vadim.Kessler@slu.se (V.G.K.); Gulaim.Seisenbaeva@slu.se (G.A.S.)
Abstract: The review presents synthetic approaches to modern rhenium-based catalysts. Creation of an active center is considered as a process of obtaining a nanoparticle or a molecule, immobilized within a matrix of the substrate. Selective chemical routes to preparation of particles of rhenium alloys, rhenium oxides and the molecules of alkyltrioxorhenium, and their insertion into porous structure of zeolites, ordered mesoporous MCM matrices, anodic mesoporous alumina, and porous transition metal oxides are considered. Structure-property relationships are traced for these catalysts in relation to such processes as alkylation and isomerization, olefin metathesis, selective oxidation of olefins, methanol to formaldehyde conversion etc.

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Rhenium Incorporation in Molybdenite: Preliminary Results of a Spectroscopic Approach Using Synchrotron Radiation
Authors: Teresa Pereira da Silva ¹, Maria-Ondina Figueiredo ^1,2, Daniel de Oliveira ¹, João Pedro Veiga ² and Maria João Batista ¹
Affiliation: ¹ LNEG, Unity of Mineral Resources and Geophysics, Estrada da Portela, Apt. 7586, 2610-999 Amadora, Portugal; E-Mail: teresa.pena@lneg.pt (T.P.S.)
² CENIMAT/I3N, Mat. Sci. Dept., Fac. Sci. Technol., New Univ. Lisbon, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Abstract: The chemical and physical properties of rhenium rendered it a highly demanded metal for advanced applications in many industrial fields. This scarce element has been assigned in granite pegmatites and quartz veins (e.g., in Japan) as well as in volcanic gases (Kudryavy Volcano, Kurile Islands), but it occurs mainly in ores of porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits associated to the mineral molybdenite, MoS₂—the recognized main Re-carrier in Nature. Molybdenite structure is based on the stacking of [S–Mo–S] layers with Mo⁴⁺ cations in prismatic coordination between two superimposed closest-packed layers of S⁼ anions, giving rise to polytypism (namely 2H₁, hexagonal and 3R, trigonal, polytypes). Between successive prismatic planar modules, additional octahedral and tetrahedral interstices are available which could locally accommodate ions with suitable coordination requirements, thus giving rise either to a solid-solution or to dispersed nanodomains of another phase. With the aim of clarifying these possibilities, an X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES) study using synchrotron radiation at the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble/France) was performed at the Re L₃-edge of molybdenite samples from different provenances. A preliminary XANES study was already performed on waste materials collected at S. Domingos mine in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, southern Portugal. The present study will certainly provide a better understanding of the minerochemical behaviour of rhenium in molybdenite.