Besides what we are pleased to call the riches of a mine are riches

relative to a distinction which nature does not recognize. The spars and
veinstones which are thrown out in the m b h h of our mines may be as
precious in the eyes of nature, as conducive to the great object of her
e c m y , and are certainly as characteristic of mineral veins as th+
ores of silver or gold to which we attach so great a value.
John Playfair, 1802

Ores are rocks or minerals that can be mined, processed, and delivered
to the marketplace or to technology at a profit. Ores are generally subdivided into the categories of metallic, nonmetallic, energy, and water. In
many quarters, me refers only to metals or metal-bearing minerals, but
many nonmetallic minerals, such as sulfur and fluorite, are included in modern common usage of the term. Building stone and industrial materials,
such as abrasives, clays, refractory materials, lightweight aggregates, and
salts, are also ores, but they are classified separately as nonmetallics, industrial minerals and rocks, or ZM and R's (Figure 1-1). Ore minerals are
considered to be naturally occurring compounds valued for their metal content, so further processing after mining-generally including concentration
(extractive metallurgy), smelting, and rehing-is implied. Industrial min1
-

INTRODUCTION

Figure 1-1. A rock mass that is both an ore and an orebody, since it can be mined from this
quarry for use as a building stone at a profit. Sheeting joints parallel to the surface coupled
with two nearly vertical joint sets visible in the photo permit easy separation of useful-sized
blocks from the Crotch Island granite quarry, Hancock County, Maine. (Photoby E. S.
Bastin.)

erals, such as salt, garnet, or asbestos, may need some upgrading with
respect to associated worthless materials, but they are all used for their
own specific physical or chemical properties rather than for anything they
contain. They are not "broken down" to be useful. The term economic
mineral is applied to both ore minerals and industrial minerals.
Not all minerals containing a given element need be classified as ore
minerals. For example, most iron silicates, such as biotite and fayalite, are
not mined for their contained iron and therefore are not ore minerals, while
hematite and magnetite are. However, any mineral of a precious metal is
probably an ore mineral. Depending on geologic circumstances, an ore may
be a rock containing veinlets, disseminations, or small amounts of useful
minerals, or it may be massive, essentially solid metal sulfide or oxide.
Although both metallic and nonmetallic minerals are widely distributed in
the rocks of the Earth's crust, only under exceptional circumstances are
they concentrated in orebodies in amounts sufficient to permit economic
recovery and in a form that permits that recovery. Most ore minerals are
associated with valueless material called gangue, and many ores grade laterally or downward into protore-mineralized rock that is too lean in ore
minerals to yield a profit. As Playfair stated so well in 1802, the economic
value of an ore mineral does not set it apart genetically from the worthless
pyrite, sericite, calcite, or other gangue mineral or rock with which it is
associated and which is unavoidably mined with it (Figure 1-2). The study

INTRODUCTION

Figure 1-2. Vast Bingham Canyon open-pit mine near Salt Lake City, Utah. Each lower
bench is 16 meters high; the upper ones are 25 meters. The dust cloud is from an explosive
charge set to shatter the ore, which is taken out in railway gondola cars. The deeper rock is
ore because it contains about 2 wt % disseminated sulfides of copper, molybdenum, and
iron, with some gold and silver. But that means that about 99% of the rock, 99% of the
volume of the hole, is gangue and is discarded into waste piles elsewhere. (Courtesy of
Kennecott Minerals Company.) .

of ore deposits thus becomes a specialized part of the broader field of petrology-petrography. Continued recognition of the fact that ore minerals
and gangue minerals are normally "part and parcel" of the rocks that contain
them has given rise to a new perception of the subdiscipline called economic
petrology, which brings the tools of the petrologist-thin-section petrography, polished surfaces for electron microprobe and optical mineragraphic
study, physical geochemistry, and mineralogy-more and more to bear on
economic geology's problems. I t is thus a premise of this book that mineral
concentrations--ore deposits where profitability of extraction is real-are
generally normal, interpretable extensions of the host rocks that contain
them.
3
-

INTRODUCTION

MINERAL RESOURCE PROBLEMS

Many demographic and economic influences combine to dictate the prices
of metals, and hence the level of activity of exploration, mine development,
and mining itself. As this chapter was written, in July 1983, industrial
activity was near historically low levels, and the doldrums in metal-consuming sectors such as automobile manufacture and commercial-residential construction had dragged metal prices to all-time inflation-adjusted lows. Three
years earlier, however, base- and precious-metal pricesaweresoaring a t the
highest relative levels in decades. Clearly, metal prices are in general cyclic.
Most metals are produced by so many diverse countries and cultures that
c a r t e l s a n d thus price management by the producershave succeeded
only rarely and briefly. Although prices are currently low on world markets,
and although use patterns are changing, prices will doubtlessly be pushed
up in the 1980s by increasing needs and consumption in underdeveloped
nations, by overall global population growth, and by the historic human
tendency to translate success and economic well-being into material consumption. The United States finds itself having to compete more assiduously each year with other countries for raw materialebauxite and chromite, for example-that used to be routed to American industrial centers,
but which now go to Japan and eastern and western Europe.
Ultimately and progressively, the world will have to adapt to shortages brought about by the consumption of its nonrenewable natural resources. Economics, politics, human needs and priorities, and geologic characteristics will all determine the geography and volume of mineral production,
as they do now. However, many American readers will be surprised to
learn that although the United States markets prodigious amounts of copper
from a scattering of huge open-pit mines in its western states (Figure I-2),
it is a net importer of copper. Copper can be produced more cheaply and
shipped to eastern ports more economically from Chile, for example, than
from southern Arizona. Although the authors intend a global emphasis in
this text, some figures pertaining to the United States demand in global
perspective are given in Tables-1-1 to 1-4. Americans should note that the
United States is economically, that is, realistically, self-sufficient in only
three of the thirty-five commodities listed-a scant 10 percent-lithium,
phosphate, and molybdenum. In the 'principal world producers' column of
Table 1-1, Canada is listed 20 times, the United States 17, the U.S.S.R.
10, South Africa 9, Mexico 7, and Brazil 5 times. The United States is so
productive because of its endowment, because it has been the principal seat
of twentieth century technologic and economic growth, and because of the
international security that a strong domestic reserves position provides.
But the United States dependence on foreign sources of supply of many
crucial commodities is obvious and problematic, and the commercial-technologic necessity of maintaining friendly trade relations with many nations
is clear. More universally, the ultimate need for global-scale harmony, co4
-

MINERAL RESOURCE PROBLEMS

operation, and international homogeneity of purpose must be the goal of all

nations, governments, and peoples.
A concept frequently referred to in the pages that follow is the distinction between orebody and ore deposit, mineral deposit, ore-mineral
occurrence, or just ore occurrence. The first denotes the distribution in a
specific volume of "the naturally occurring material from which a mineral
or minerals of economic value can be extracted a t a reasonable profit" (AGI
Glossary of Geology, 1980). It thus depends on geography, energy costs,
type and degree of dilution, tenor (the grade or amount of a commodity
actually present), depth in the crust, and many other variables. Mineral
deposit carries no necessary profitability implications and usually denotes
subeconomic or incompletely evaluated occurrences of ore minerals. Mineral occurrences or ore-mineral occurrences are uneconomic but still anomalous concentrations of minerals that are common ore minerals elsewhere.
A distinction is also made between reserves and resources. Reserves include
orebodies "in production," ores known by drilling or other specific measurement to exist, or ores reliably inferred to exist in a specific place (Figure
1-3). Resources include reserves and all other potentially viable mineral
deposits that are either unknown or uneconomic at present but that can
still reasonably be expected to exist. Note in Figure 1-3 that actual mining
activity involves only the stippled area. The cross-ruled portion of "undis-

Total Resources

Identified

Undiscovered

Decreasing
economic
feasibility

Increasing degree of
geologic assurance

Figure 1-3. Geologic-economicclassification of mineral reserves and resources. (Adapted

from U.S.G.S.
sources.)

TABLE 1-1. U.S. Consumption and Pmductlonand World Production, Resetves, and Sources of 35 Mineral Commodltles In Order of Increasing U.S.
Oomestlc Self-Sufliclency.

Approximate
1976-2000
World
U.S.
Consum~tion.
.
U.S. Consumption, U.S. Consumption, Production, 1982, in
U.S.
Entire
%
in Metric Tons
Million $
Metric Tons
Alone World
Newly Mined Material, 1982

Commodity
Chromium
Manganese
Cobalt
Tantalum
Niobium
Thorium

Tin
Platinum group
Antimony
Aluminum
Asbestos
Fluorite
Nickel
Gold

Ratio of
Reserves to
Cumulative
Demand;

Princiud World
producers, 1982
(Most Important First)
U.S.S.R., South Africa,

Finland, Zimbabwe

U.S.S.R., South Africa,

Gabon, Brazil
Zaire, Zambia, Japan,
Canada
Malaysia, Thailand,
Canada
Canada, Nigeria, Brazil
Australia, Brazil, India,
Malaysia
Malaysia, Bolivia, South
Africa
South Africa, U.S.S.R.,
Zimbabwe
P.R. China, Bolivia,
South Africa
Jamaica, Australia
U.S.S.R., Canada, South
Africa,
P.R. China
Zimbabwe,
Mexico, U.S.S.R.,
Mongolia, P.R. China
Canada, New Caledonia,
U.S.S.R., Norway
South Africa, U.S.S.R.,
Canada

Bismuth
Silver
Tungsten
Potassium

Mexico, Peru, Canada

Mexico, Peru, Canada
Canada, Bolivia, U.S.
U.S.S.R., Canada,
Israel, U.S.
Canada, Mexico, U.S.
P.R. China, Brazil, U.S.
Canada, Mexico, western
Europe
Canada, Japan, U.S.
U.S.S. R., Spain, Italy,
U.S.
Australia, Canada, U.S.
U.S., Canada, Mexico
U.S., P.R. China, Peru,
India
Chile, U.S., Canada,
Zambia, Zaire
U.S., Canada, Australia,
Brazil
U.S., Canada, France,
Mexico
U.S., Australia,
Malaysia, P.R. China
Canada, South Africa,
Australia
South Africa, U.S.,
Finland, P.R. China
US., Morocco, U.S.S. R.,
P.R. Chiia
U.S., Brazil, Namibia,
Zimbabwe
U.S., Chile, Canada

Cadmium
Beryllium
Zinc
Selenium
Mercury
Titanium
Lead
Barite
Copper
Iron
Sulfur
Lanthanides
Uranium
Vanadium
phosphate rock
Lithium
Molybdenum
e

estimated; NA

not available.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Mines via National Research Council, 1981, and Engineering and Mining J o u m l , March 1983.

Table 1-2. Gmloglc octurrencs and sonnes of 33 mlnenl commodltles by broad genetlc class.

Chromium
Manganese
Cobalt
Tantalum
Niobium
Thorium
Tin
Platinum p u p
Antimony
Aluminum
Asbeatoa
Fluorine
Niel
Gold
Biuth

Silver
Tungsten
PotPsaium

Cadmium
Beryllium
Ziae
Selenium

M
m
.
atoni~m

Lead
Barite
copper
Iron

SuWlr
Lanthanides

000

URnium
Vanadii

0
.

Phosphate rock
Lithium
Molybdenum

Each circle represents 26% of m u a l world production. Open circles = U.S. sourcea; solid circles =
non-U.S. production (see right-hand column of Table 1-1). Elements are annnged from top to bottom in
order of inamaing U.S.self-suffleiency. "Secretionn include8 Missiseippi Valley type; "Intermediate
Felsic" includes porphyries.
Source: In part h m National Re&

Council, 1981.

Table 1-2. (continued)

Commodity
Chromium
Manganese
Cobdt
Tantalum
Niobium
Thorium
Tin
Platinum group
Antimony
Aluminum
Asbestos
Fluorine
Nickel
Gold
Bismuth
Silver
Tungsten
Potassium
Cadmium
Beryllium
Zinc
Selenium
Mercury
Titanium

Mechanical
Chemical
Sedimentation Sedimentation Weathering
(Chapter 17)
(Chapter 16)
(Chapter 15)

Secretion
(Chapters 19
and 20)

MJor Additional Potential

Sources
Laterites
Seafloor nodules
Seafloor nodules

Aluminum-rich sedimentary and igneous rocks

Phosphate by-product
S e h r .nodules

Nonmarine brines
Greisem, skarns
Zinc-silicate laterite
Coal by-product
By-product of copper-molyporphyries

Lead
Barite
copper
Iron
Sulfur
Lanthanides

Alkalic igneous complexes

Seafloor nodules

Uranium
Vanadium

Granites
Vanadium-rich shales, oil byproduct, layered mafic intrusions

Phosphate rock
Lithium
Molybdenum

Petroleum, cod, gypsum

Phosphate by-product

Lithium clays, brines

INTRODUCTION

TABLE 1-3.

u.$. Rependence on Forelgn Sources for Some of Its Mlnerals in 1980.

Less than half imported from foreign sources, so more than 50% self-sufficient
Copper
Tellurium
Iron
Stone
Titanium (ilrnenjte)
Cement
Lead
Salt
Silicon
Gypsum
Magnesium
Barite
Rare earths (lanthanides)
Molybdenum
Vanadium
Pumice
Antimopy
One-half to threefourths imparkd j h m foreign s m e s
Zinc
Nickel
Gold
Cadmium
Silver
Selenium
Tungsten
Potassium
Threefourths to 90% imported from fweign sources
Aluminum

Bismuth
Platinum

Fluorine
Asbestos
Tin

Mercury
Tantalum
More than 90% imported from foreign sources
Niobium
Manganese
Strontium
Cobalt
Sheet mica
Chromium
Titanium (rutile)
S o m e : Adapted from U.S.G.S. sources.

covered resources" should be proportionally much larger, and is in large

part what this book is all about.

'THE ROLE OF ECONOMIC GEClLOGY

Although the understanding of ore-deposit genesis and occurrence has led
to tremendous exploration success in the 1970s in porphyry copper, Climaxtype molybdenum, volcanogenic copper-zinc-lead, and unconformity-type
uranium deposits, to name but a few, projected consumption rates of metals
indicate a secure world reserves position extending into the twenty-first
century only for iron. In spite of cyclic supply-and-demand-price vicissitudes, it is clear that corporate and government exploration activity must
and will continue and that geologists must be prepared to be increasingly
capable, professional, and diligent in their search.
The accelerating growth of the world's population, combined with an
improving standard of living throughout the world, is greatly increasing
demands for mineral products of all types. These demands will certainly

4!l

THE ROLE OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

TABLE 1-4. General Outlook for Wood Reserves end Resourcesthrou()h fOOO A.O. Wlthin Each Group,
Commodltles Are Llsted Id Order of Apflroximate Importance as DeterPlned by Dollar Value of
Production.
Group 1-Reserves adequate to fill needs well beyond the year 2000.
Coal
Phosphorus
Construction stone
8ilicon
Sand and gravel
Molybdenum
Nitrogen
Uranium
Chlorine
Gypsum
Hydrogen
Bromine
Titanium (except
Boron
rutile)
Argon

Soda
Diatomite

Calcium
Barite

Clays
Lightweight aggregates

Potash
Helium

Magnesium
Peat

Lithiunl

Oxygen
Group %Identified, but currently subeconomic resources adequate to liU needs beyond the
year 2000.
Aluminum
Vanadium
Asbestos
Zirconium (as zircon)
Nickel
Thorium
Chromium
Titanium (as rutile)
Manganese
Rare earths (lanthanides)
Group %Estimated undiscovered resources adequate to fill projected needs beyond the
year 2000 and in quantities significantly greater than those of group 2. Research efforts for
these commodities should concentrate on geologic theory and exploration methods aimed at
discovering new resources.
Iron
Platinum

Copper
Tungsten

Zinc
Beellium

Gold
Cobalt

Lead
Cadtnium

Sullur
Bismuth

Silver
Selenium

Fluorine
Niobium

Group P I d e n t f i e d subeconomic and undiscovered resources, together probably not enough

to fill needs until the end of the century. Research on possible new exploration targets, new
types of deposits, and substitutes is necessary.
,

Tin
Mercury
Antimony
Tantalum

Sacme: Adapted from U.S.G.S. sources.

continue to grow. At the same time, the search for ore is becoming more
complex; more and more, ore is being sought under cover and at greater
and greater depths. In order 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 not now economic can be developed with due regard for
11
-

ecological and environmental constraints. For these reasons, the successful

economic geologist must develop "exploration thinking" requiring imagination, ingenuity, and a degree of optimism, as well as a thorough knowledge of structural geology, stratigraphy, petrology, and mineralogy, and
of how fluids migrate underground. Economic geologists should also be
familiar with fundamental techniques in geophysics and geochemistry, as
these fields are becoming increasingly useful in the search for buried deposits. More importantly, they need to be increasingly able to interpret the
field and laboratory significance of observable geologic relationships, and to
bring geologic, geochemical, geophysical, mathematical, and computer skills
to bear on them.
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 and not in another? What causes the localization of ore? Probably the best way to answer these questions, and hence the best way to
search for new ore bodies, is to study the structuke and genesis of known
mineral concentrations and then explore geologically favorable analogous
areas. One of the precepts of this text is that although no two deposits are
exactly alike, they share enough unifying characteristics that they can be
grouped into exploration-genetic sets which have lithotectonic-geologic
characteristics, and can therefore be successfully hunted and found.
Owing to the complex nature of the Earth, and because many of the
processes involved in ore deposition cannot be observed, the study of ore
deposits and ore genesis is not an exact science. We work primarily with
Earth-scale reaction products, the final result of the interaction of complex
geochemical systems of ages, even eons, past. Interpretation of the processes
that produced the reaction products that resulted in ore-mineral concentrations is commensurately difficult. Although the study of ore deposits is
basically a field science, this does not mean that precise laboratory and
experimental data are not desirable or useful; it does mean that laboratory
data should be viewed critically and used with wisdom and care. Laboratory
data unsupported by field evidence frequently lead to erroneous conclusions, and the final test of all theories and hypotheses in geology is their
applicability in the field. But certainly our ability to loop between field
observation, geochemical-geophysical laboratory analysis, and process evaluation-all supported by computation and data base management-is a
growing and necessary part of the role of the economic geologist searching
for, or studying the genesis of, ore deposits.