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Hydrothermal deposits of economically valuable and recoverable minerals are generally considered scarce, meaning such deposits are very small relative to the total area of earth's surface. [ 2 ] Each of these deposit types is usually considered to represent a distinctive deposit group with common features and in a similar four-dimensional ...
Volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits, also known as VMS ore deposits, are a type of metal sulfide ore deposit, mainly copper-zinc which are associated with and produced by volcanic-associated hydrothermal events in submarine environments. [2] [3] [4] These deposits are also sometimes called volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) deposits
Massive sulfide deposits are ore deposits that have significant stratiform ore bodies consisting mainly of sulfide minerals.Most massive sulfide ore deposits have other portions that are not massive, including stringer or feeder zones beneath the massive parts that mostly consist of crosscutting veins and veinlets of sulfides in a matrix of pervasively altered host rock and gangue.
Different mineral associations precipitate during the typical stages of mineralization that characterize the life span of such systems. [1] [2] [3] Minerals present in a hydrothermal system or a fossil volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit are deposited passively or reactively.
[28] [29] These are large, round, disseminated deposits containing on average 0.8% copper by weight. [5] Hydrothermal. A cross-section of a typical volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) ore deposit. Hydrothermal deposits are a large source of ore. They form as a result of the precipitation of dissolved ore constituents out of fluids.
Main ore minerals in SEDEX deposits are fine-grained sphalerite and galena, chalcopyrite is significant in some deposits; silver-bearing sulfosalts are frequent minor constituents; pyrite is always present and can be a minor component or the dominant sulfide, as it is the case in massive sulfide bodies; barite content is common to absent ...
Epithermal — mineral ore deposits formed at low temperatures (50–200 °C) near the Earth's surface (<1500 m), that fill veins, breccias, and stockworks. [2] Telethermal — mineral ore deposits formed at shallow depth and relatively low temperatures, with little or no wall-rock alteration, presumably far from the source of hydrothermal ...
Eventually a point is reached where the minerals start to crystallise out. [2] Minerals formed in this way are called primary, or hypogene, minerals. Sulfur is a common component of the fluids, and most of the common ore metals, lead, zinc, copper, silver, molybdenum and mercury, occur chiefly as sulfide and sulfosalt minerals. [3]