Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves

1. A 'Mineral Resource' is a concentration or occurrence of material of intrinsic economic interest in

or on the Earth's crust in such form and quantity that there are reasonable prospects for eventual economic
extraction. The location, quantity, grade, geological characteristics and continuity of a Mineral Resource are
known, estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge. Mineral Resources are
sub-divided, in order of increasing geological confidence, into Inferred D21 , Indicated D22 and Measured
D23 categories.
2. An 'Ore Reserve' is the economically mineable part of a Measured or Indicated Mineral Resource.
It includes diluting materials and allowances for losses which may occur when the material is mined.
Appropriate assessments, which may include feasibility studies, have been carried out, and include
consideration of and modification by realistically assumed mining, metallurgical, economic,
marketing, legal, environmental, social and governmental factors. These assessments demonstrate at
the time of reporting that extraction could reasonably be justified. Ore Reserves are sub-divided in order of
increasing confidence into Probable Ore Reserves D30 and Proved Ore Reserves D31 .
3. A 'Probable Ore Reserve' is the economically mineable part of an Indicated, and in some
circumstances Measured Mineral Resource. It includes diluting materials and allowances for losses which
may occur when the material is mined. Appropriate assessments, which may include feasibility studies, have
been carried out, and include consideration of and modification by realistically assumed mining,
metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal, environmental, social and governmental factors. These
assessments demonstrate at the time of reporting that extraction could reasonably be justified.
A Probable Ore Reserve has a lower level of confidence than a Proved Ore Reserve.
4. A 'Proved Ore Reserve' is the economically mineable part of a Measured Mineral Resource. It
includes diluting materials and allowances for losses which may occur when the material is mined.
Appropriate assessments, which may include feasibility studies, have been carried out, and include
consideration of and modification by realistically assumed mining, metallurgical, economic, marketing,
legal, environmental, social and governmental factors. These assessments demonstrate at the time of
reporting that extraction could reasonably be justified.
5. The choice of the appropriate category of Ore Reserve is determined primarily by the
classification of the corresponding Mineral Resource and must be made by the Competent Person or
Persons.

Classification of Ore Deposits

No two ore deposits are the same! However, they can be divided into broad classes eg syngenetic (BIF)
vs epigenetic (vein)
Discordant Orebodies
Regularly shaped bodies
Tabular veins, faults. Divides footwall and hanging wall
Tubular pipes or chimneys (vertical) and mantos (horizontal)
Irregularly shaped bodies
Disseminated deposits eg diamonds in kimberlites, closely spaced veins called a stockwork
Irregular replacement deposits eg magnesite replacement of limestone, skarn
Concordant Orebodies
Sedimentary host rocks
particularly important for base metals and
iron.
Parallel to bedding and limited development
perpendicular to it, thus strataform. Not to
be confused with stratabound, which refers
to type of orebody, concordant or discordant,
which is restricted to a particular part of the
stratigraphic colomn

Stratiform Deposits

Sedimentary host rocks

Limestone hosts
Very common host for base metal sulfide deposits
Due to their solubility and reactivity they become favourable horizons for mineralisation
Argillaceous hosts
Shale, mudstone, argillites and slates
Eg Kupferschiefer copper bearing shale, 1m thick over 136 km2.
Arenaceous hosts next slide
Rudaceous hosts
Alluvial gravels and conglomerates often host placer deposits of gold, PGEs and Uranium
Chemical sediments

 Iron, manganese, evaporite and phosphorite formations

Arenaceous Hosts
Heavy minerals in beach sands eg Crowdy Head, NSW
Unconsolidated, easy to process using gravity settling techniques
Formed by marine regressions and transgressions
Igneous Host Rocks
Volcanic hosts
Volcanic-associated massive sulfide (VMS)
deposits. Important source of base metals. Consist
of >90% pyrite and generally stratiform bodies.
Plutonic hosts
Layered mafic intrusions
Rythmic layering in the form of alternating
bands of mafic and felsic minerals
Host to chromite, magnetite, ilmenite and
PGEs
Stratiform, great lateral extent eg Bushveld
Komatiites
Nickel-copper sulfide ores formed by the
sinking of an immiscible sulfide liquid to
the bottom of a magma chamber or lava
flow. Liquation deposits.
Sulfides usually accumulate in hollows at
the base of the magma forming
conformable sheets or lenses

Residual Deposits
Formed by the removal of non-ore material from proto-ore.
Eg leaching of silica and alkalis from a nepheline syenite may leave behind a surface capping of hydrous
aluminum oxides, called bauxite.
Eg weathering granite kaolinite
Eg laterite can enrich nickel from peridotites
Supergene Enrichment
Groundwater circulation can lead to redistribution of metals above the water table
Textures and Structures of Ore and Gangue Minerals
Terminology Ore Deposits
Ore
Gangue
Waste
Grade
Cut-off
Reserves
Host rock
Country rock
Hydrothermal

Alteration *
Metamorphism *
Vein
Replacement
Massive sulphide
Skarn
Epigenetic
Syngenetic
Gossan

Terminology - Deposit Scale Structure

Concordant
Discordant
Stratiform
Stratabound
Footwall
Hangingwall

Fault
Shear zone
Lode, shoot
Breccia
Stockwork
Chimney
Manto

Terminology - Hand specimen scale structure

Banding
Banding may represent small scale sedimentary layering in a syngenetic deposit such as a massive
sulphide or repeated pulses of mineralization in a vein.
Crustiform banding
When minerals grow within a vein, they often grow inwards from the vein wall. Several layers of
different types of minerals, representing different pulses of hydrothermal fluids passing through the
structure, may be observed in a single vein. These bands are often aligned symmetrically away from the
center of the vein.
Comb structure
When minerals crystallize inwards from opposite walls of a vein, they often meet in the center to form
an interdigitating pattern of crystals, usually quartz, which has an appearance similar to a rooster's comb.
Vug
This is an open space or cavity, usually within a vein.
Cockscomb
This is a crustiform banding when it surrounds breccia fragments.
Crustiform banding

Fluid Inclusions :- Formed during crystal growth and provide us with a sample of the ore forming fluid
Yield crucial geothermometric data and tell us about the physical state of the fluid eg boiling
Most fluid inclusion work carried out on transparent minerals such as quartz, fluorite and sphalerite
Principle matter is water and carbon dioxide.
4 groups of inclusions
Type 1 two phase, principally water with some vapour
Type 2 two phase, principally vapour with some water
Type 3 three phase, water-vapour-halite, contain daughter mineral that have crystallised from
solution
Type 4 CO2-rich inclusions, CO2 liquid.

Fluid inclusions
Fluids trapped in small crystal imperfections
Can reveal information about the nature of ore forming fluids ie exceedingly strong brines form at depth
indicating chloride in hydrothermal solutions is a potent solvent of metals through the formation of
metal-chloride complex ions (ligands)
Wall Rock Alteration
Argillic clay minerals (dickite, kaolinite, pyrophylite, montmorillonite)
(Na,Ca) 0.33(Al,Mg) 2Si4O10(OH)2nH2O
Sericitization
3KAlSi3O8 + 2H+ KAl3Si3O10 (OH)2 + 6SiO2 + 2K+
K-feldspar
Sericite
Silica
[Ca, Na]AlSi3O8 + K+ + 2H+ KAl3Si3O10 (OH)2 + 6SiO2 + 3[Na+, Ca+]
Plagioclase and Albite Sericite
Silica
Propylitic - Characterized by chlorite, calcite and minor epidote. Mafic minerals highly altered and
plagioclase less so
Chloritisation
4H+ + 2K(Mg,Fe)3(Si3Al)O10(OH)2 Al(Mg,Fe)5(Si3Al)O10(OH)8 + (Mg,Fe)2+ + K+ + 3SiO2
Biotite
Chlorite
Quartz
Carbonatisation pptn of carbonates (calcite, dolomite, magnesite, siderite)
Potassic secondary biotite, orthoclase, chlorite
Silicification addition of silica (Quartz, chalcedony)
Theories of Ore Genesis
Internal Processes
Magmatic crystallisation
Diamonds in kimberlites, feldspar in pegmatites
Magmatic segregation
Fractional crystallisation
Liquation
Hydrothermal processes
Sources of the solutions and their contents
Meteoric water
Sea water
Deeply penetrating ground water
Metamorphic water
Magmatic water
Means of transport (ligands)
Lateral secretion
Metamorphic processes

Geothermal Systems

Lateral Secretion

Origin Due to Surface Processes

Exhalative processes (volcanic and sedimentary) - exhalites
VMS Formation

VMS Fluid Circulation

Hydraulic Fracturing

Fracturing of rock by water under high pressure

Increases permeability
Transport and deposition of ores

Fracturing