Russia and South Africa are the world’s leading producers of platinum group elements (PGEs). This places them in a unique position regarding the supply of these two key industrial commodities. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comparative high-level overview of aspects of the geological occurrence, mineralogy, and processing by flotation of the platinum group minerals (PGMs) found in each country. A summary of some of the major challenges faced in each country in terms of the concentration of the ores by flotation is presented alongside the opportunities that exist to increase the production of the respective metals. These include the more efficient recovery of minerals such as arsenides and tellurides, the management of siliceous gangue and chromite in the processing of these ores, and, especially in Russia, the development of novel processing routes to recover PGEs from relatively low grade ores occurring in dunites, black shale ores and in vanadium-iron-titanium-sulphide oxide formations.

The presented study is devoted to a comparative review of the mineral raw material base of platinum group metals (PGMs) and technologies of their processing in South Africa and Russia, the largest PGM producers. Mineralogical and geochemical classification and industrial value of iron-platinum and platinum-bearing deposits are presented in this work. The paper also reviews types of PGM ore body occurrences, ore processing methods (with a special focus on flotation processes), as well as difficulties encountered by enterprises at the processing stage, as they increase recovery of the valuable components. Data on mineralogical features of PGM deposits, including the distribution of elements in the ores, are provided. The main lines of research on mineralogical features and processing of raw materials of various genesis are identified and validated. Sulfide deposits are found to be of the highest industrial value in both countries. Such unconventional PGM sources, as black shale, dunites, chromite, low-sulfide, chromium and titanomagnetite ores, anthropogenic raw materials, etc. are considered. The main lines of research that would bring into processing non-conventional metal sources are substantiated. Analysis of new processing and metallurgical methods of PGM recovery from non-conventional and industrial raw materials is conducted; the review of existing processing technologies for platinum-bearing raw materials is carried out. Technologies that utilize modern equipment for ultrafine grinding are considered, as well as existing reagents for flotation recovery; evaluation of their selectivity in relation to platinum minerals is presented. Basing on the analysis of main technological processes of PGM ore treatment, the most efficient schemes are identified, i.e.,gravity and flotation treatment with subsequent metallurgical processing.

Deterioration of mineralogical and physical characteristics of mineral raw materials results in the formation of the primary task for the comminution processes—reduction in the size of ore to obtain a material with a certain granulometric composition, which in turn is achieved by overgrinding of raw materials and, consequently, an increase in energy costs. The work aimed to justify the possibility of selective disintegration of mineral assemblages of polymetallic ores of various genesis at the stage of crushing based on in-depth investigation and revealing of interrelation and mutual influence of mineralogical-geochemical features, textural-structural and technological properties. Structural and textural features have been studied by the methods of computed X-ray microtomography. Experimental and theoretical investigations of mineralogical and technological parameters of raw materials, as well as research on crushing using different types of crushers, made it possible to substantiate the possibility of selective disintegration for polymetallic ores.

In this article, typomorphic associations of microelements in carbonaceous caustobioliths and oils are defined as indicators of naphthogenesis based on the analytical survey of the literature and our own research. Various approaches to the studying of crude oil genesis from the position of abiotic and complex approaches (polygenesis) are considered. Such approaches are relevant to the prospect and development of offshore oil deposits, localized at ultra-deep levels. For deep deposits, the most prominent hypothesis of oil origin is the abiogenious theory. In the foundation of that approach lays the assumption that hydrocarbons are formed mainly due to reactions of the formed mantle gases and the host rock. Key factors for these reactions to proceed are specific conditions concerning temperature, pressure, and specific catalysts. The article presents the results of thermodynamic and quantum-chemical modeling of the possibility of the organic and organometallic compound formation using the software package HSC Chemistry 6.0. Pointed out the possibility of a low molecular weight hydrocarbon formation due to the contact of ascending flows of mantle gases with cooling natural barriers. The primary synthesis proceeds with the interaction of fluid forms of H₂, CO_2, and H₂S. The estimation of the bonding energy depending on the structure of organometallic compounds was performed using the Avogadro software package. The program used the method of bond potential energy minimization to find the most stable structure of molecules. The metals nickel and vanadium, as the main companion metals of oil, are of the most interest from the position of analysis of their form of existence in the possible formation of hydrocarbons. Vanadium’s and nickel’s accumulation in asphaltene fractions of oils, probably, is caused by complex compounds of metalloporphyrin’s formation. In addition, the high sulfur content is probably associated with polymerization of organic molecules due to the formation of di-sulphide bonds. The method of cavitation extraction of organometallic compounds from oil and complex mineral–oil raw materials has been developed for experimental confirmation of microelements the extraction capability from oil raw materials.