MARINE PLACERS

C03
by Victor M. Levson
British Columbia Geological Survey

Levson, Victor M. (1995): Marine Placers, in Selected British Columbia Mineral Deposit Profiles,
Volume 1 - Metallics and Coal, Lefebure, D.V. and Ray, G.E., Editors, British Columbia Ministry of
Energy of Employment and Investment, Open File 1995-20, pages 29-31.

IDENTIFICATION
SYNONYMS: Beach, coastal or shoreline placers; offshore placer deposits; coastal dune placers
(rare).

COMMODITIES (BYPRODUCTS): Ti (ilmenite, rutile), Zr (zircon), Sn, Au, PGEs (locally Ag, Th,
REE, monazite, yttrium, magnetite, garnet, diamonds and other gems).

EXAMPLES (British Columbia - Canada/International): Graham Island (PGE, Au), Queen

Charlotte Sound (Au); Country Harbour (Au, Nova Scotia, Canada), Nome (Au, Alaska, USA),
Bermagui (Au, Australia), Westland and Nelson provinces (Au, New Zealand), Starke (ilmenite,
Florida, USA), Atlantic beaches ( ilmenite, zircon, Brazil), Sherbo deposit; rutile (Sierra Leone),
Rosetta sand spit (ilmenite, magnetite, zircon, Egypt), Kerala and Quilon (ilmenite, zircon, monazite,
India).

GEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
CAPSULE DESCRIPTION: Detrital gold, ilmenite, cassiterite, platinum group elements and other
heavy minerals occurring at the present or paleoseafloor surface. They usually occur in Holocene
raised or submarine beach or strandline deposits along wave-dominated shorelines, but can also be
found in coastal dunes, drowned fluvial channels, or as offshore relict lag concentrations.

TECTONIC SETTINGS: Placers occur mainly along cratonic margins where reworking of clastic
material has proceeded for long periods of time. The margins of Cenozoic and Mesozoic
accretionary orogenic belts and volcanic arcs are also important settings.

DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENT / GEOLOGICAL SETTING: Marine placers form in exposed,

shoreline or nearshore environments in areas of active winnowing by waves and long-shore or tidal
currents. They occur along present beaches and are also preserved as relict submerged deposits
or raised strandlines that formed during glacially induced, low or high sea level stands. Beach
placers accumulate mainly in the upper foreshore and backshore depositional environments.
Geological settings include sand spits, barrier islands, coastal dunes, buried marine scarps,
drowned fluvial deposits and submerged residual or lag deposits overlying bedrock or till.

AGE OF MINERALIZATION: Mainly Holocene (rarely Late Pleistocene) in glaciated areas;

generally Tertiary or younger in unglaciated regions.

HOST ROCK TYPES: Well sorted, medium to coarse-grained sands overlying fine-grained shallow
marine deposits; some lag gravel concentrations over till or bedrock.

DEPOSIT FORM: Paystreaks follow strandlines in shoreline environments and are thin (often <1
m), long (>100 m, often > 1 km) and narrow (<50 m); usually interbedded with barren sequences;
titaniferous sands are up to 20 m thick in Queen Charlotte Sound.

TEXTURE/STRUCTURE: Au is typically very fine grained (< 0.5 mm diameter), well rounded,
flattened and of high fineness; coarser Au (~1 mm diameter) occurs in relict lag gravels.

ORE MINERALOGY (principal and subordinate): Native Au, ilmenite, rutile, cassiterite, PGEs,
zircon, magnetite (Ag, gemstones, garnet, monazite, various industrial minerals).

GANGUE MINERALOGY: Quartz, pyrite and other sulphides and in many deposits subeconomic
concentrations of various heavy minerals.

WEATHERING: Leaching (e.g. Fe from ilmenite) and destruction of unstable minerals may result in
residual enrichment of the deposit.

ORE CONTROLS: Heavy mineral concentrations occur along stable shorelines where long- term
sorting and winnowing by wave or current action occurs; richest pay streaks usually follow
strandlines marked by beach gravels or coquina accumulations; common over clay beds, till or
bedrock; occurrence often controlled by the extent of onshore placer or bedrock sources.

ASSOCIATED DEPOSIT TYPES: Coastal placer concentrations commonly associated with present
or former fluvial or deltaic surficial placers (CO1).

EXPLORATION GUIDES
GEOCHEMICAL SIGNATURE: Anomalous concentrations of Au, As, Fe, Sn, Ti, Zr, REE, Th, Y
and U in shoreline or nearshore sediments.
GEOPHYSICAL SIGNATURE: Ground penetrating radar useful for delineating the geometry,
structure and thickness of sandy shoreline deposits. Shallow seismic, electromagnetic, induced
polarization, resistivity and magnetometer surveys are locally useful (e.g. IP anomalies from
ilmenite).

OTHER EXPLORATION GUIDES: Panning and other methods of using gravity sorting to identify
concentrations of gold, ilmenite, zircon, rutile, magnetite or other heavy minerals.

ECONOMIC FACTORS
TYPICAL GRADE AND TONNAGE: Deposits are typically high tonnage (0.1 to 100 Mt) but low
grade (e.g. 0.05-0.25 g/t Au, 50-200 g/t Sn); higher grade deposits are small (e.g. Graham Island
beach deposits 120 m long, 15 m wide and 15 cm thick [1000 t ] contain up to 20 g/t Au and 70 g/t
Pt). Surface relict gravels offshore of Nome contain 920 ppb Au. Placer concentrations are highly
variable both within and between individual deposits.

ECONOMIC LIMITATIONS: The main economic limitations to mining surficial placer deposits are
the typically low grades and their location near or below the water table. Offshore placers may occur
as much as 100 m below present sea level. Environmental concerns have placed severe
restrictions on development in many areas.

IMPORTANCE: Beach placers account for a significant part of the world’s Ti production (mainly
from Australia, India, Brazil and Florida) and are an important source of Au, zircon, magnetite,
garnet, monazite and diamonds.

REFERENCES
Barker, J.C., Robinson, M.S. and Bundtzen, T.K. (1989): Marine Placer Development and
Opportunities in Alaska; Mining Engineering, volume 42, pages 551-558.

Barrie, J.V. (1990): Contemporary and Relict Titaniferous Sand Facies on the Western Canadian
Continental Shelf; Continental Shelf Research, Volume 11, pages 67-80.

Barrie, J.V. (1994): Western Canadian Marine Placer Potential. Canadian Institute of Mining,
Metallurgy and Petroleum, Bulletin, Volume 87 (977), pages 27-30.

Barrie, J.V. Emory-Moore, M., Luternauer, J.L. and Bornhold, B.D. (1988): Origin of Modern
Heavy Mineral Deposits, Northern British Columbia Continental Shelf. Marine Geology, Volume 84,
pages 43-51.

Emory-Moore, M. (1991): Placer Gold Potential of the Northern Newfoundland Shelf; Geological
Survey of Canada, Open File 2417, 113 pages.
Hein, F.J., Syvitski, J.P.M., Dredge, L.A. and Long, B.F. (1993): Quaternary Sedimentation and
Marine Placers along the North Shore, Gulf of St. Lawrence; Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences,
Volume 30, pages 553-574.

Laznicka, P. (1985): Empirical Metallogeny - Depositional Environments, Lithologic Associations

and Metallic Ores - Volume 1: Phanerozoic Environments, Associations and Deposits, Part A;
Elsevier Science Publishers, Developments in Economic Geology, 19, 1002 pages.

Nelson, C.H. and Hopkins, D.M. (1972): Sedimentary Processes and Distribution of Particulate
Gold in the North Bering Sea; U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Paper 689, 27 pages.