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World-wide distribution of MVT deposits (red), clastic sediment-hosted (green), and unclassified (blue) lead-zinc deposits. Source: USGS. Carbonate-hosted lead-zinc ore deposits are important and highly valuable concentrations of lead and zinc sulfide ores hosted within carbonate (limestone, marl, dolomite) formations and which share a common genetic origin.
It was Canada's longest lived continuous mining operation and produced metals worth over $20 billion in terms of 2005 metal prices. Grading was in excess of 5% Pb and 6% Zn. The ore genesis of the Sullivan ore body is summarized by the following process: Sediments were deposited in an extensional second-order sedimentary basin during extension.
Transport of metals occurs via convection of hydrothermal fluids, the heat for this supplied by the magma chamber which sits below the volcanic edifice. Cool ocean water is drawn into the hydrothermal zone and is heated by the volcanic rock and is then expelled into the ocean, the process enriching the hydrothermal fluid in sulfur and metal ions.
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.
Carlin–type gold deposits are sediment-hosted disseminated gold deposits. These deposits are characterized by invisible (typically microscopic and/or dissolved) gold in arsenic rich pyrite and arsenopyrite. [2] This dissolved kind of gold is called "invisible gold", as it can only be found through chemical analysis. [3]
Iron ore (banded iron formation) Manganese ore – psilomelane (size: 6.7 × 5.8 × 5.1 cm) Lead ore – galena and anglesite (size: 4.8 × 4.0 × 3.0 cm). Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process.
Mineral commodities can be classified as metals or non-metals. [2] Metals refer to elements of the periodic table which include base, ferrous, minor fissionable and precious metals. On the other hand, non-metals refer to industrial minerals such as gypsum, diamonds, oil, coal and aggregate. Hydrothermal deposits of economically valuable and ...
However most metals of economic importance are carried as trace elements within rock-forming minerals, and so may be liberated by hydrothermal processes. This happens because of: incompatibility of the metal with its host mineral, for example zinc in calcite , which favours aqueous fluids in contact with the host mineral during diagenesis .