Researchers identify manganese and cobalt in Latvian iron ore

Latvian scientists have found elevated manganese in iron ore from Staicele and higher cobalt concentrations in samples from Gārsene, opening new possibilities for studying the country’s metal resources, LSM reported.

Researchers at the University of Latvia have used modern methods to examine the two deposits in greater detail for the first time in more than 40 years. The deposits lie in ancient crystalline bedrock beneath sedimentary rocks, at depths of up to one kilometre.

Exploration drilling took place at both locations in the early 1980s, but the deposits were barely studied afterward. Researchers have now taken several hundred samples from old drill cores held in a repository managed by the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre. They examined the material under microscopes and carried out chemical analyses to determine the metals’ location and concentrations more precisely.

Geology doctoral student Dmitrijs Vorobjovs said sulfide minerals in samples from Gārsene showed increased cobalt concentrations. Staicele’s banded iron ore contains magnetite with an elevated manganese oxide content, averaging about three percent, according to the study.