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Magmatic Ore Deposits
Magmatic Ore Deposits
Magmatic ore deposits are deposits where the metal is found in the primary magma, and
as such is the most basic (least evolved) type of deposit. The most common elements
mined in magmatic deposits are nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), and the PGEs (Platinum
Group Elements): platinum (Pt), iridium (Ir), palladium (Pd), osmium (Os), ruthenium
(Ru) and rhodium (Rh). Of these, Pt, Ir and Pd are the major money makers. Nickel and
the PGEs are chalcophile elements, that is, they are sulfur-loving elements. All of these
elements are hosted in mafic and ultramafic rocks such as basalts, gabbros and
komatiites. Granites contain almost no PGEs (certainly not in exploitable quantities)
and sediments do not contain any at all.
The metals
Platinum. The main use for platinum is in catalytic converters in cars, bonding with CO
and thereby purifying the air. It is extremely insoluble in room temperature fluids (like
gold), malleable, and very resistant. Due to its high melting temperature (~1700oC),
platinum is also used to make high temperature containers, such as crucibles, in which
other materials can be heated.
Chrome. Found in chromite, a spinel with a composition FeCr2O4 . Chrome is a very
important industrial metal. It insoluble, doesn't rust, and is only found in magmatic
deposits, being a 100% mantle component.
Mantle Melting
Ultramafic rocks are the result of mantle plumes or hot spots (e.g. Hawaii). Mantle
plumes occur as heat rises from the core (this is still debated) through the mantle until it
reaches a pressure where melting is able to occur.. As the plume rises it is able to melt
more and more of the mantle, with melt travelling up through permeable unmelted
mantle. Diffusional heat loss is very minimal compared to ascendancy. Note that mantle
melting is not batch melting - you don't take a chunk of the mantle and melt it 100%.
Only a few percent melts at a time, so that the composition is constantly changing.
Some of the crust is assimilated into the melt as it rises, changing its composition. The
Sr87/86 ratio can be used to determine the age of the intrusion as well as how much of the
crust has been incorporated into it. As the melt ascends through the crust, the ratio
increases.
A very high degree of mantle melting is required to form PGE deposits. The amount of
MgO in a melt can tell you the how much melting took place since the it is directly
correlated with temperature. Mg-rich rocks indicate high melting temperatures and a
high degree of melting (see olivine phase diagram). PGEs are found in olivine and
sulfide minerals. Platinum sulfides, unlike many sulfide minerals, melt at very high
temperatures.
Some Important Magmatic Ore Deposits around the World...
1. Bushveld: The Bushveld Complex in South Africa covers an area of 67 000 km2
(the size of Ireland!). It is the largest LMI deposit and also provides most of the
world's platinum. Besides being the best PGE deposit, it also contains a lot of
chromite.
2. Kambalda: nickel deposit, Australia.
3. Sudbury: nickel and PGE deposit, Canada.
The Distribution Coefficient
D is the distribution coefficient, a ratio of how many x there are a to b. The notation is:
Dxa/b .
For example, if x = rocks, and Anne has 2 rocks while Bob has 1, then Drocksanne/bob =
Drocks2/1 = 2/1 = 2. It is important to define what you are considering and in what ratio.
For example, DPtsulfide melt/silicate melt = 105 means that platinum prefers the sulfide melt
many, many times to the silicate! So in the sulfide melt it is 105 while in the silicate it is
only 1. To put it in perspective, this means that you would find 10 ppm (parts per
million) Pt in the sulfide to every 1 ppb (pp billion) in the silicate. Iridium is similar DIrsulfide melt/silicate melt = 104. This shows that you don't need much sulfide to strip the PGEs
out of a silicate melt.
Solubility
Solubility is the ability of a substance to dissolve / the amount it dissolves. It is a
function of temperature (T), pressure (P),
composition (X), and oxygen and sulfur fugacity (fO2, fS2). For example, there is a
specific amount of salt you can dissolve in a given amount of water at a specific set of
conditions. At room temperature, for example, the composition may be 25% salt, while
at much higher temperature you can have up to 90% salt (see diagram). Saturation is
reached when no more salt will dissolve in the water. Like salt, sulfur has a solubility
which is a very important factor in forming deposits. Once a silicate melt is saturated in
sulfur, any added sulfide cannot dissolve in the silicate, and so you end up with a
silicate melt and sulfide.
Immiscibility
Immiscible liquids do not mix. A classic example is oil and water (see diagram above).
Cooling from the one liquid field, two liquids appear once you hit the solvice. These
become more pure as you cool further.
Sometimes the system is a little more complicated. The normal Sr87/86 trend (below left)
observed in a magma chamber is sometimes repeated. This is an indication that there
were many pulses of magma into the magma chamber.
Several minerals change composition from the bottom to the top of the magma chamber.
One way to note the compositional variation in the magma chamber is the Fe/Mg ratio.
As crystallisation progresses, minerals (e.g. olivine) become more Fe-rich (forsterite)
(those that crystallised first were more Mg-rich (fayalite), having formed at a higher
temperature). The final minerals are sometimes so iron rich that rust forms at the top of
the chamber. The composition of plagioclase feldspars also changes with crystallisation.
As you go up in the layers in the chamber, less and less anorthite (Ca-rich) is formed,
and more albite (Na-rich) crystallises.
The channels are important. Once they are established, all the magma flows through
them like a stream (lava pipes also form, with magma cooling around the outside to
make the pipe while the rest flows through the centre). Assimilation and contamination
are particularly important with respect to a komatiite, because it melts everything it
comes in contact with (everything melts at this temperature!).
Sulfur Saturation
If you bring up a komatiite, it is initially under saturated in sulfur. There is a little sulfur
in the sediments which is assimilated into the melt as it rises, enriching the melt in
sulfur. The sulfur then drops out as sulfides. As subsequent flows go by, these sulfides
strip out metals from the magma (very high R value - lots of silicate, constantly
replenished, to a small amount of sulfur) and form deposits. High MgO melts have a
high nickel content (100's ppm) because a lot of Ni-rich olivine is melted. Once melted,
however, Ni doesn't return to olivine and is easily stripped out of the melt into sulfides
at the surface.
Sulfur saturation is a major factor in forming ore deposits. When the melt is saturated in
sulfur, sulfides can drop out to form the deposit. At depth, where a melt forms in the
mantle, there is a limit to how much sulfur can be dissolved in it. The melt may be
saturated in sulfur at high pressure with 300 ppm S. At the surface, however, the melt
may need 1000 ppm to be sulfur saturated. So as the melt rises it becomes hugely under
saturated in sulfur due to the decrease in pressure (saturation is a function of pressure,
among other things).
Ways to saturate in sulfur. The amount of sulfur in the melt depends on iron, fO2, fS2 :
FeO + 1/2S2 = FeS + 1/2O2
fO2 is a function of the activity of oxygen as a function of temperature. The oxidation
states of iron, in increasing oxidation state, are as follows: Fe (iron) - FeO (wustite) Fe3O4 (magnetite) - Fe2O3 (hematite).
The lines in the diagram above are buffers and are much more important than the fields.
Both minerals on the buffer are produced. For any given temperature, adding oxygen
increases oxidation. If you are in the Fe field, for example, and keep adding oxygen,
you will keep making FeO until the Fe runs out. Then you will start to make Fe3O4 .
All these melts are contaminated by crustal material. Contamination changes the
composition of the melt. FeO is vital to this and to sulfur saturation. Sulfur saturation is
affected by:
1.
2.
3.
4.
contamination
cooling
fractionation
pressure
Simple fractionation decreases FeO in the melt because you crystallise olivine - (Mg,
Fe)2SiO4 - which in turn increases sulfur saturation as you move to a cotectic where an
immiscible sulfur liquid exists. As FeO decreases, the solubility of S decreases i.e. as
you increase FeO in the melt you increase S in the melt. As fO2 increase, sulfur
solubility decreases. You can decrease FeO by forming Fe2O3. SiO2 also has an effect
on sulfur saturation. As SiO2 increases, the solubility of S decreases (hence sulfur
saturation increases). The more silica there is in a melt, the more polymerised the melt
(viscosity is a function of how polymerised the melt is).
If the melt is polymerised, there are fewer places for sulfur to attach to, and so sulfur
saturation occurs. In addition, adding silica means that FeO and MgO (and others) are
diluted. At Kambalda, the assimilated material is both S and SiO2 rich, which enables
sulfur saturation. An average basalt contains 200 ppm S, while a komatiite contains 600
ppm S. You can saturate any melt is sulfur not by adding more sulfur but by
fractionating the melt, that is, crystallising sulfur-free phases. As you do this, sulfur (and
sulfur-loving metals) becomes concentrated in the melt.
Lever Rule
The Lever rule allows you to find the compositions of melts on ternary phase diagrams.
Sudbury is the largest Ni deposit (not originating from the meteorite), containing 1
billion tonnes of ore. The Onaping Tuff, the top layers of rock, looks like an ordinary
volcanic tuff but it is actually the fallback breccia from the meteorite impact. The
Sudbury breccia, under the Ni deposit, is made up of pulverised gneiss (further evidence
of high energy events). The nickel deposit formed as a result of the impact, which had
an effect all the way to the upper mantle. The reason the structure is oval shaped and not
round, as you would expect, partly because the crust has stretched in the last 1.8Gyrs
and partly because it was probably a glancing blow in the first place (and so slightly
elliptical).
The impact, reaching to the upper mantle, caused peridotite melting by the sudden
pressure loss and adiabatic ascension. The ultramafic, PGE, Cu, Ni - rich melt rose
towards the surface, assimilating crustal material. As the melt rose, it decompressed and
expanded, forming the funnel or tulip shape. It is likely that not only is mantle melt
present, but that a chunk of the upper mantle was involved in forming the deposit
(fractionated). This could be one of the reasons why the deposit is so Ni-rich. Another is
its sheer size. Pods of ore exist with the sulfides at the bottom of each pod. Most
sulfides are at the sides of the deposit (along the walls of the tulip structure) rather than
in the centre. The main ore consists of pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite. It is ~
1% Cu, 1% Ni, 10 ppm PGE.
Factors controlling PGE content of a sulfide melt
1. Percentage partial melting of the mantle (a few % forms a basalt, 50% forma a
komatiite). Ni and PGEs live in olivine so a lot of melting is necessary to
acquire these metals. Cu, Pd and Pt in the mantle are also in sulfides which are
very hard to melt. Pt and Pd linger in residual sulfides. Ultramafic magmas are
high in Mg, Ni, PGE, mirrored in the composition of associated sulfide ores.
MORBs average < 0.7 ppb Pd, < 0.06 ppb Ir, while continental basalts average ~
6 ppb Pd, 0.1 ppb Ir. MORBs are low in incompatible LILs and LREE because
they are generated from previously depleted mantle.
2. Silicate melt - sulfide liquid equilibrium.