Nyrdvomenshor Nephrite Deposit, Polar Urals, Russia
, Mikhail P. Popov 2,3, Firat M. Nurmukhametov 3, Viktor F. Posokhov 1 and Vladislav V. Vanteev 1Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Please add some products (jewelry) photos, if possible. It is difficult to assign the quality of the gemstones. Please add comparison between this deposit and related similarly deposits found in Russia
Author Response
Please add some products (jewelry) photos, if possible. It is difficult to assign the quality of the gemstones.
- corrected. High-quality nephrite was mined at the deposit in 1980-1981. Since then, there has been no mining and no products have been manufactured. But in the article figure 6 with photographs of nephrite plates is replaced - the option with illumination is selected and the size is increased for clarity.
Please add comparison between this deposit and related similarly deposits found in Russia
- corrected. Comparison was added.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Review: Minerals 2376191
Nyrdvomenshor gem stones deposit, Polar Urals, Russia
Evgeniy V. Kislov, Mikhail P. Popov, Firat M. Nurmukhametov, Viktor F. Posokhov, Vladislav V. Vanteev
The study is important both from a theoretical and gemmological point of view. This is the first in detail mineralogical and geochemical investigation on this nephrite deposit from a remote region in the Northern Urals of the Russian Federation. The authors must change the introduction and final text which copy their text from an extended abstract on the same deposit (to be included in references): Kislov, E. V., M. P. Popov, F. M. Nurmukhametov, V. F. Posokhov. 2022b. Nephrite from the Nyrdvomenshor deposit (Polar Urals): features of composition and formation settings. – In: Ultramafic-mafic Complexes: Geology, Composition, Ore Potential. Materials of Conference. Apatity, 54-57 (in Russian).
Comments and notes:
Title: Nyrdvomenshor is well known as a nephrite deposit (Kazak et al., 1976; Efros, Prokofiev, 1979; Suturin, Zamaletdinov, 1984; Suturin et al., 2015), and as the authors do not describe the mineralogy of jadeite and jasperq or other gemstones from the local placers, thus a better title can be: Mineralogy of the Nyrdvomenshor nephrite deposit, Polar Urals, Russia
Abstract: We have Studied are quality characteristics, the chemical, mineral and isotope composition of nephrite, diopsidite and rodingite samples from the Nyrdvomenshor nephrite deposit in the Polar Urals. We Applied are visual petrographic……
22: Keywords: nephrite, diopsidite, rodingite, Nyrdvomenshor, Polar Urals uvarovite, chromite, metamorphism, metasomatism
26: Nephrite consist mainly of fibrous tremolite or actinolite. The general formula for the tremolite-actinolite-ferroactinolite isomorphic series is: □Ca2(Mg,Fe)5Si8O22(OH)2
27-28: …China and New Zealand. [Central America is famous for jadeite artifacts, and not for nephrite artifacts].
28-30: The most expensive samples are white translucent, black and bright green with a minimum amount of ore minerals, or with the “cat's eye” effect nephrites, as well as alluvial pebbles with edges of coloring.
33-35 Move the sentence after the S-type deposits to 39: The Dahua deposit in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [3] and Luodian deposit in Guizhou Province [4] in southern China, formed on the contact of diabases and limestones, are close to the D type.
49: The Fengtien deposit is known in Taiwan [12-14] – it is a S-type deposit.
50: … Co Phuong deposit in Shon La Province in Vietnam – reference: Long et al., 2004.
53: … in the USA and Canada from Guatemala to Alaska , and mining is carried out…..
54: … Nephrite deposits are known but poorly studied in Wyoming [24] and several other states in the USA.
57: A few nephrite occurrences are known in Switzerland, Italy and Austria.
74: A number of small deposits…
76: … in the Southern Urals
79: There are three nephrite occurrences in the Bashkir Republic…
85-86: See above and move to 49-50: On the southern extension of the Urals, is the Dzhetygara nephrite occurrence in Kazakhstan [38]. A better reference is: Kovalenko, I.V., I.P. Khadzhi, V.S. Kovalenko, A.F. Sviridenko. 1985. Features of the microstructure and composition of ultramafic related nephrite. Zap. All-Union. Mineral. Soc., 114, 6, 707-712 (in Russian)
93: … nephrite linked to (related to) serpentinite …
126: …scattered , rare-earth and trace elements…
128: РЗЭ (REE)
141: … δ18O values
154: …town
168: Four companies…
177: Rai-Iz
185: Beside the geological data of Vakhrusheva et al., 2017, the deposit is well described in the earlier monograph Nephrites by N.A. Suturin, and P.S. Zamaletdinov, 1984 (second revised edition Suturin et al., 2015).
189: … albite-jadeitites,…
191: Numbers 1 to 16 for right part of Figure 1; or delete text on 194-201.
246: …minerals in diopsidite
262: Do the 3 nephrite samples in Table 3 correspond to number of samples from Figure 6?
287: In Table 4: Are you sure, that with max FeO 4.80%, the mineral is tremolite, and not actinolite. Are you sure, that with min FeO 0.61%, the pyroxene is omphacite?
287 In Table 4 and 404: The official name for shuiskite is (do you have proper analytical data for the formula): shuiskite-(Cr) Ca2Cr3+Cr3+2[Si2O6OH][SiO4](OH)2O or shuiskite-(Mg) Ca2MgCr3+2[Si2O6OH][SiO4](OH)2(OH).
341: Uvarovite is detected also in nephrite from China (Sichuan) and New Zealand: Jin, X., Z. Qiu, S. Dai, J. Yi, L. Li, Y. Zhang. 2014. Gemmological and mineralogical characteristics of nephrite from Ya’an, Sichuang Province. Journal of Gems & Gemmology, 16, 5, 1-8 (in Chinese with English abstract). Cooper, A. F. 2022. Origin and evolution of nephrites, diopsidites and giant diopside crystals from the contact zones of the pounamu ultramafics, Westland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 10.1080/00288306.2022.2050771. A single uvarovite analysis is also reported from the near-by Puserka jadeite deposit (Popov et al., 2015).
363: 1020 ppm of Cr Ni…
364-371: Everywhere after the data for the three elements – ppm
391: Ulankhoda…
402 and 410: The official IMA formula of tremolite is: □Ca2(Mg5.0-4.5 Fe2+0.0-0.5)Si8O22(OH)2
408: There are no proper component data to declare the mineral is omphacite (see 287, Table 4). In the next sentence there is a “transfer” from omphacite to jadeite – also a high-pressure mineral, but not in paragenesis with tremolite, which in metamorphic conditions unusually is a formed at lower-temperatures and pressures. Bolders of both nephrite and jadeite (but not formed together –
there are no reported data or photos) in the region are described by Dergunov et al., 1975 (for jadeite in the three ultramafic complexes in the Polar Urals with possible similar genesis see: Meng et al. 2011. Zircon U-Pb dating of jadeitite from the Syum-Keu ultramafic complex, Polar Urals, Russia: Constraints for subduction initiation. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 42, 596-606).
415-433: This text must be placed at 441 as discussion after the new data of the authors.
450-451: Text to be deleted.
454: Of importance for the Conclusions are:
- Green nephrite from this deposit is tremolite, linked to S-type (serpentinite linked) genesis.
- It was formed by both multistage metasomatic and superimposed metamorphic processes.
- Mineral composition……
- Geochemical and isotope characteristics…..
References:
483: Kievlenko, E.Ya. Geology of Gems. Ocean Pictures: Littleton CO, USA. 2003, 468 p.
485: https://doi.org/10.2747/0020-6814.47.2.113
486: http://dx.doi.org/10.5741/GemS.55.2.198
507: https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(88)90321-3
535: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2020.103335
537: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2007.01.001
546 and 548: The study is not a review on all nephrite occurrences in Russia and worldwide – old communications of 1915-1918 can be omitted or replaced by contemporary review papers.
570: https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(90)90160-M
576: doi.10.1016/j.ijms.2011.10.003
577: https://doi.org/10.1080/00288306.2010.514929
579: doi.10.1016/j.jseaes.2011.05.012
582: https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21417
588: https://doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.97.3.593
589: This paper (see same author at N45 in references) can be replaced by another one and cited in the text: Kislov, E.V., M.P. Popov, F.M. Nurmuhametov. 2021. Perspective of the Nyrdvomenshor nephrite deposit, Polar Urals. In: Dynamics and Interaction of the Earth’s Geospheres. Еd. Tomsk CSTI, Tomsk, 1, 312-314 (in Russian).
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
The English text can be a bit better.
Author Response
We are sincerely grateful to the reviewer for the great work not only in reviewing, but also in editing, correcting, and supplementing our manuscript. As a result of this, as well as corrections for two more reviews, it has become much better. We apologize for any misprints, inaccuracies, omissions and errors.
The study is important both from a theoretical and gemmological point of view. This is the first in detail mineralogical and geochemical investigation on this nephrite deposit from a remote region in the Northern Urals of the Russian Federation. The authors must change the introduction and final text which copy their text from an extended abstract on the same deposit (to be included in references): Kislov, E. V., M. P. Popov, F. M. Nurmukhametov, V. F. Posokhov. 2022b. Nephrite from the Nyrdvomenshor deposit (Polar Urals): features of composition and formation settings. – In: Ultramafic-mafic Complexes: Geology, Composition, Ore Potential. Materials of Conference. Apatity, 54-57 (in Russian).
- corrected
Comments and notes:
Title: Nyrdvomenshor is well known as a nephrite deposit (Kazak et al., 1976; Efros, Prokofiev, 1979; Suturin, Zamaletdinov, 1984; Suturin et al., 2015), and as the authors do not describe the mineralogy of jadeite and jasperq or other gemstones from the local placers, thus a better title can be: Mineralogy of the Nyrdvomenshor nephrite deposit, Polar Urals, Russia
- corrected
Abstract: We have Studied are quality characteristics, the chemical, mineral and isotope composition of nephrite, diopsidite and rodingite samples from the Nyrdvomenshor nephrite deposit in the Polar Urals. We Applied are visual petrographic……
- corrected
22: Keywords: nephrite, diopsidite, rodingite, Nyrdvomenshor, Polar Urals uvarovite, chromite, metamorphism, metasomatism
- corrected
26: Nephrite consist mainly of fibrous tremolite or actinolite. The general formula for the tremolite-actinolite-ferroactinolite isomorphic series is: □Ca2(Mg,Fe)5Si8O22(OH)2
- corrected
27-28: …China and New Zealand. [Central America is famous for jadeite artifacts, and not for nephrite artifacts].
- corrected
28-30: The most expensive samples are white translucent, black and bright green with a minimum amount of ore minerals, or with the “cat's eye” effect nephrites, as well as alluvial pebbles with edges of coloring.
- corrected
33-35 Move the sentence after the S-type deposits to 39: The Dahua deposit in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [3] and Luodian deposit in Guizhou Province [4] in southern China, formed on the contact of diabases and limestones, are close to the D type.
- corrected
49: The Fengtien deposit is known in Taiwan [12-14] – it is a S-type deposit.
- corrected
50: … Co Phuong deposit in Shon La Province in Vietnam – reference: Long et al., 2004.
- corrected
53: … in the USA and Canada from Guatemala to Alaska , and mining is carried out…..
- corrected
54: … Nephrite deposits are known but poorly studied in Wyoming [24] and several other states in the USA.
- corrected
57: A few nephrite occurrences are known in Switzerland, Italy and Austria.
- corrected
74: A number of small deposits…
- corrected
76: … in the Southern Urals
- corrected
79: There are three nephrite occurrences in the Bashkir Republic…
- corrected
85-86: See above and move to 49-50: On the southern extension of the Urals, is the Dzhetygara nephrite occurrence in Kazakhstan [38]. A better reference is: Kovalenko, I.V., I.P. Khadzhi, V.S. Kovalenko, A.F. Sviridenko. 1985. Features of the microstructure and composition of ultramafic related nephrite. Zap. All-Union. Mineral. Soc., 114, 6, 707-712 (in Russian)
- corrected
93: … nephrite linked to (related to) serpentinite …
- corrected
126: …scattered , rare-earth and trace elements…
- corrected
128: РЗЭ (REE)
- corrected
141: … δ18O values
- corrected
154: …town
- corrected
168: Four companies…
- corrected
177: Rai-Iz
- corrected
185: Beside the geological data of Vakhrusheva et al., 2017, the deposit is well described in the earlier monograph Nephrites by N.A. Suturin, and P.S. Zamaletdinov, 1984 (second revised edition Suturin et al., 2015).
- corrected
189: … albite-jadeitites,…
- corrected
191: Numbers 1 to 16 for right part of Figure 1; or delete text on 194-201.
- corrected
246: …minerals in diopsidite
- corrected
262: Do the 3 nephrite samples in Table 3 correspond to number of samples from Figure 6?
No, they are different samples
287: In Table 4: Are you sure, that with max FeO 4.80%, the mineral is tremolite, and not actinolite.
- corrected, and at the text too
Are you sure, that with min FeO 0.61%, the pyroxene is omphacite?
Omphacite is a mineral of variable composition, a solid solution of diopside and jadeite, less often it is indicated that diopside, jadeite and aegirine. When writing its formula, either the predominance of magnesium over iron is noted, or iron is not indicated at all.
287 In Table 4 and 404: The official name for shuiskite is (do you have proper analytical data for the formula): shuiskite-(Cr) Ca2Cr3+Cr3+2[Si2O6OH][SiO4](OH)2O or shuiskite-(Mg) Ca2MgCr3+2[Si2O6OH][SiO4](OH)2(OH).
- corrected. We have identified an unnamed mineral of the shuiskite group with a significant predominance of iron. The necessary clarifications in the table, text, and captions to the illustration have been made.
341: Uvarovite is detected also in nephrite from China (Sichuan) and New Zealand: Jin, X., Z. Qiu, S. Dai, J. Yi, L. Li, Y. Zhang. 2014. Gemmological and mineralogical characteristics of nephrite from Ya’an, Sichuang Province. Journal of Gems & Gemmology, 16, 5, 1-8 (in Chinese with English abstract). Cooper, A. F. 2022. Origin and evolution of nephrites, diopsidites and giant diopside crystals from the contact zones of the pounamu ultramafics, Westland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 10.1080/00288306.2022.2050771. A single uvarovite analysis is also reported from the near-by Puserka jadeite deposit (Popov et al., 2015).
- corrected. About the deposit in Sichuan there is an indication of the presence of uvarovite and a photograph. But analyzes of the chemical composition of the mineral are not given. Nephrite from New Zealand contains grossular with a high content of the uvarovite component. The mention of the find in Pusierka is given, although it is not associated with nephrite.
363: 1020 ppm of Cr Ni…
- corrected
364-371: Everywhere after the data for the three elements – ppm
- corrected
391: Ulankhoda…
- corrected
402 and 410: The official IMA formula of tremolite is: □Ca2(Mg5.0-4.5 Fe2+0.0-0.5)Si8O22(OH)2
- corrected, clarification is given in the text of the article
408: There are no proper component data to declare the mineral is omphacite (see 287, Table 4). In the next sentence there is a “transfer” from omphacite to jadeite – also a high-pressure mineral, but not in paragenesis with tremolite, which in metamorphic conditions unusually is a formed at lower-temperatures and pressures. Bolders of both nephrite and jadeite (but not formed together – there are no reported data or photos) in the region are described by Dergunov et al., 1975 (for jadeite in the three ultramafic complexes in the Polar Urals with possible similar genesis see: Meng et al. 2011. Zircon U-Pb dating of jadeitite from the Syum-Keu ultramafic complex, Polar Urals, Russia: Constraints for subduction initiation. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 42, 596-606).
- corrected, clarification is given in the text of the article
415-433: This text must be placed at 441 as discussion after the new data of the authors.
- corrected
450-451: Text to be deleted.
- corrected
454: Of importance for the Conclusions are:
- Green nephrite from this deposit is tremolite, linked to S-type (serpentinite linked) genesis.
- It was formed by both multistage metasomatic and superimposed metamorphic processes.
- Mineral composition……
- Geochemical and isotope characteristics…..
- - corrected
References:
483: Kievlenko, E.Ya. Geology of Gems. Ocean Pictures: Littleton CO, USA. 2003, 468 p.
- corrected
485: https://doi.org/10.2747/0020-6814.47.2.113
- corrected
486: http://dx.doi.org/10.5741/GemS.55.2.198
- corrected
507: https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(88)90321-3
- corrected
535: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2020.103335
- corrected
537: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2007.01.001
- corrected
546 and 548: The study is not a review on all nephrite occurrences in Russia and worldwide – old communications of 1915-1918 can be omitted or replaced by contemporary review papers.
- corrected
570: https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(90)90160-M
- corrected
576: doi.10.1016/j.ijms.2011.10.003
- corrected
577: https://doi.org/10.1080/00288306.2010.514929
- corrected
579: doi.10.1016/j.jseaes.2011.05.012
- corrected
582: https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21417
- corrected
588: https://doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.97.3.593
- corrected
589: This paper (see same author at N45 in references) can be replaced by another one and cited in the text: Kislov, E.V., M.P. Popov, F.M. Nurmuhametov. 2021. Perspective of the Nyrdvomenshor nephrite deposit, Polar Urals. In: Dynamics and Interaction of the Earth’s Geospheres. Еd. Tomsk CSTI, Tomsk, 1, 312-314 (in Russian).
- corrected. Unclear. The link to the abstract of thesis cannot be replaced by a link to the article, since its differ in conclusions about the number of deformation stages. It is not clear why our abstract are here - it was not considered in them.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors present the results of a study of jade alluvial material from the Nyrdvomenshor deposit. The overall impression of the submitted manuscript is ambiguous. The poor quality of the analytical data and dubious identification of minerals raise doubts that the authors dealt with nephrite, and not tremolitite.
I believe that this manuscript should not be published in Minerals. However, below I have listed the main comments which need clarification if the authors would like to submit this manuscript somewhere else:
- The presentation of analytical data is careless. Normally, all analyses should be calculated on the crystal-chemical formula.
- Very strange presentation of mineral analyses. I understand if the authors gave a mean analysis and then showed the range of changes in the components from minimum to maximum in the selected population of analyses.
- The totals in all Tables are not match the data in Tables.
- I have doubts about the correct identification of minerals.
- In Table 2 grossular (ideal formula Ca3Al2Si3O12) contains !MgO ~ 36-38 wt.%.
- Images of nephrite are low quality. If a petrographic study has been performed, the authors can provide some optical images of nephrite.
- Why did isotope analyses were carried out, there is no interpretation of these data in the manuscript.
Author Response
The authors present the results of a study of jade alluvial material from the Nyrdvomenshor deposit. The overall impression of the submitted manuscript is ambiguous. The poor quality of the analytical data and dubious identification of minerals raise doubts that the authors dealt with nephrite, and not tremolitite.
- corrected. Applied instruments and methods correspond to the world level. The description of the technique met with no objections from the reviewer. With regard to bringing tabular data, they are supplemented by average values. The studied rock really belongs to nephrite, and not to tremolitite, as evidenced by the photographs. The text is supplemented by a description of the microfabric and morphology of grains and aggregates of tremolite, confirming that it is nephrite.
I believe that this manuscript should not be published in Minerals. However, below I have listed the main comments which need clarification if the authors would like to submit this manuscript somewhere else:
- The presentation of analytical data is careless. Normally, all analyses should be calculated on the crystal-chemical formula.
- The more traditional style is the presentation of full representative analyses, but this requires considerable space. Therefore, the editors object to presenting a significant number of analyzes in the text. Recalculation of all analyzes into crystal chemical formulas will double the volume. If necessary, such information can be provided by the authors to everyone upon request.
- Very strange presentation of mineral analyses. I understand if the authors gave a mean analysis and then showed the range of changes in the components from minimum to maximum in the selected population of analyses.
- corrected. Tables are supplemented with average values.
- The totals in all Tables are not match the data in Tables.
- corrected. The sum in the tables was not the sum of the maximum and minimum values of partial analyzes, but the maximum and minimum sum of partial analyzes. These values have been removed.
- I have doubts about the correct identification of minerals.
- corrected. Tables are supplemented with average values. The table of composition of grossular in rodingite has been corrected.
- In Table 2 grossular (ideal formula Ca3Al2Si3O12) contains !MgO ~ 36-38 wt.%.
- corrected. Sorry for mistake.
- Images of nephrite are low quality. If a petrographic study has been performed, the authors can provide some optical images of nephrite.
- corrected. Photos of the plates are replaced by photos with illumination of a larger size.
- Why did isotope analyses were carried out, there is no interpretation of these data in the manuscript.
Interpretation of isotopic data is contained in the Discussion section and is reflected in the conclusions
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
Please see the attachment.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you very much for your comments and suggestions. According to the sample you proposed, the tables were redone, crystal chemical formulas are given
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 3
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript can be accepted for publication.
