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An ore deposit is an economically significant accumulation of minerals within a host rock. [9] This is distinct from a mineral resource in that it is a mineral deposit occurring in high enough concentration to be economically viable. [4] An ore deposit is one occurrence of a particular ore type. [10]
High-grade gold ore from the Harvard Mine, Jamestown, California, a wide quartz-gold vein in California's Mother Lode. Specimen is 3.2 cm (1.3 in) wide. Various theories of ore genesis explain how the various types of mineral deposits form within Earth's crust. Ore-genesis theories vary depending on the mineral or commodity examined.
The study is primarily focused on metallic mineral deposits and mineral resources. The techniques employed by other Earth science disciplines (such as geochemistry, mineralogy, geophysics, petrology, paleontology and structural geology) might all be used to understand, describe and exploit an ore deposit. [citation needed]
Many sulfide minerals are economically important as metal ores; examples include sphalerite (ZnS), an ore of zinc, galena (PbS), an ore of lead, cinnabar (HgS), an ore of mercury, and molybdenite (MoS 2, an ore of molybdenum. [136] Pyrite (FeS 2), is the most commonly occurring sulfide, and can be found in most geological environments.
Metallic iron is virtually unknown on the Earth's surface except as iron-nickel alloys from meteorites and very rare forms of deep mantle xenoliths.Although iron is the fourth-most abundant element in the Earth's crust, composing about 5%, the vast majority is bound in silicate or, more rarely, carbonate minerals, and smelting pure iron from these minerals would require a prohibitive amount of ...
When the ore forms a blanketlike body along the bedding plane of the rock, it is commonly called a manto ore deposit. Other ore geometries are chimneys and veins. [ 4 ] Polymetallic replacements/mantos are often stratiform wall-rock replacement orebodies distal to porphyry copper deposits, [ 5 ] or porphyry molybdenum deposits. [ 6 ]
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In geology, a lens or lentil is a body of ore or rock that is thick in the middle and thin at the edges, resembling a convex lens in cross-section. [1] To thin out in all directions is to "lens out", also known as "lensing". The adjectives "lenticular" and "lentiform" are used to describe lens-like formations.