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GEO 364 ORE DEPOSITS

1.0 Definition of Terms and Basic Principles
Resource Geology the study of geologic materials used by man to facilitate his task.

Geology provides:
Fuel, construction materials, water, materials used to manufacture toothpaste, floor cleaner, dog biscuits, paper,
microchips, satellites, missiles, etc.

Economic mineral any geological material which is of commercial value to human society.
Fossil fuels, construction and industrial materials, metals, gemstones, etc.

Mineral deposit accumulations or concentrations of one or more useful substances, metalliferous or non-
metalliferous, that are for the most part sparsely distributed in the earths outer crust.

Why are mineral resources important to man?

Mineral resources have become almost synonymous with industrial power.
The rise of industrial nations coincided with the utilization of their mineral resources.

Geologic resource naturally occurring solids, liquids or gases known or thought to exist in or on the Earths crust in
concentrations which make extraction economically feasible either at present or sometime in the future.

Geologic reserve a subset of a geologic resource, or that portion of an identified resource which can be extracted
economically using current technology.

Factors affecting the size of available reserve relative to total resource:

1) Commodity price or value
2) Exploration (may increase the proportion of known resource)
3) Technological developments improvement of efficiency of mineral extraction lowers the cost of production
4) Changes in regulatory requirement e.g., environmental measures, mining law, etc.

Cost vs. Price of production determines the size of reserve and whether s mineral deposit is economic. This is
intimately linked with Demand and Supply

The Economics of Resources

Factors that are almost economically unique in reference to mineral resources are:
1) Occurrence Mineral deposits are limited and localized.
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2) Uncertainty of reserves and discoveries the determination of reserves depends upon exploration success (including
political environment in area under exploration), value and cost of extraction, metallurgical treatment and transportation costs.
3) Depletion, exhaustion and costs of mining depletion or exhaustion of an ore deposit may occur slowly or suddenly, as
influenced by costs, market, availability of ore, inflation, etc. Ideally, as an ore deposit is being depleted, a portion of the proceeds
should be alloted to exploration.
4) Recycling (scrap return) Some but not all mineral products can be recycled.
5) Environmental requirements the mineral industry now faces severe restrictions for environmental protection.

Nevertheless, Geological resources are exploited when it is economical to do so; i.e., when the cost of production is less
than the price obtained by selling the commodity in question.
2 components of cost of production:
1) Capital costs exploration, mining rights, planning, political costs, mining, processing, infrastructure,
transport of materials, restoration
2) Operational costs cost of producing a unit volume of marketable product.

The price for a mineral is linked with the concepts of supply and demand (in a free market economy).
Supply quantity of a commodity tat suppliers are prepared to sell at a given price.
Demand quantity of commodity a consumer is prepared to buy at a given price.

Resource management

2 issues concerning resource management:

1) Sustainability of the resource
2) Environmental impact associated with its exploitation

Resources may either be sustainable (renewable through natural processes) or non-sustainable

(finite).
Majority of traditional geological resources are non-sustainable (exception groundwater).
Why? Because geological processes necessary to replace mineral deposits may take millions of
years.

There are 2 perspectives regarding future availability of mineral resources:

1) Ricardian paradigm as reserves are consumed, growth in demand and technological evolution will allow
the exploitation of increasingly low-grade resources; low-grade resources are available at increasing cost
provided that society is prepared to pay for them.
2) Malthusian paradigm economically viable resources are finite and will be consumed at an exponential rate
(believed to be typical of some metal ores). Most of the metal is dispersed in low-grade deposits and only a
small fraction is concentrated into economically viable reserves. Once these reserves are consumed there is
a great technological and practical barrier to the exploitation of these deposits
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The Role of Economic Geology

The accelerating growth growth of the worlds population, combined with an improving standard of living, is
greatly increasing demands for mineral products, and these demands will continue to grow.
The search for ore is becoming more complex; many are already blind.
In ordet to obtain sufficient supplies in the future, new geologic, geochemical and geophysical exploration
ideas and techniques must be devised to supplement the old.
Recovery, recycling and mining techniques need to be improved so that large bodies of near-surface
minerals that are now not economic can be developed with due regard for environmental constraints
The successful economic geologists must develop exploration thinking requiring imagination, ingenuity and
a degree of optimism, as well as thorough knowledge of structural geology, stratigraphy, petrology and
mineralogy and how fluids migrate underground. They should also be familiar with fundamental techniques in
geophysics and geochemistry, and should develop mathematical and computer skills.

The economic geologist should be able to answer

Under what conditions and as a result of what processes are ores formed?
What factors lead to the concentration of certain elements in one environment andn not in another?
What causes the localization of ore?

The best way to answer these questions, and also search for new orebodies, is to study the structure and genesis of
known mineral concentrations and then explore geologically favorable analogous areas.

No two deposits are alike. However, they share enough unifying characteristics that can be grouped into exploration
genetic sets which have lithotectonic-geologic characteristics, and therefore can be hunted down.