ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

ECONOMIC GEOLOGY is the study of geological materials which are useful to mankind,
which differ from place to place and time to time.
These include metallic and non-metallic minerals and fuels mainly.
Economic Geology within main subject of geology cannot exist as a separate discipline,
because it has to be based on the broad spectrum of the geological sciences. Therefore, a
good economic geologist has to be a good geologist first. He should have an understanding
of the various geological processes and background information of the various geological
disciplines. Thus Petroleum, Coal, Phosphorite and Evaporite require studies on
sedimentology and structural geology.
Ore Geology is also having varied processes which concentrate the useful metals and their
compounds. They are laid down by igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary processes, and
by the circulating magmatic and groundwater and hydrothermal fluids. Some metals and
their oxides or hydroxides are concentrated by weathering processes. Thus the whole
spectrum of geological sciences is covered in ore deposit formation.
A good background of structural geology is also must for economic geology as the processes
of ore formation are likely to have been controlled by or modified by geological structures.
Geochemistry is an important subject as ore concentration or localization is dealing with
mobilization of and concentration of metals and other associated materials. This includes
both inorganic and organic geochemistry.
Economic Geology is thus, a culmination of a broad training in the geological sciences.
For the understanding of the deposits, their discovery and assessment depends on a variety
of techniques which include geophysical methods, exploration geochemistry, and ultimately
drilling.
Some Definitions :
Deposit is a rather unsatisfactory term that is widely used. It may mean material laid down
by water, or clastic material coming out of suspension, or it may refer to precipitation from
solution in response to different chemical conditions. Such deposits are sedimentary. The
term also refers to the ore material concentrated by igneous processes, either as cumulates
of heavy minerals sinking to the base of a magma chamber, or to crystallization towards the
top of a magma chamber. The term is also applied to the mineral concentrations
precipitated from hydrothermal solutions that pass through the pores or fissures in a rock.
Economic Deposits comprise any material of economic interest that have been
concentrated by any process to an extent and degree of concentration that invite
exploitation.
Ore is defined as a naturally occurring material from which a mineral or minerals of
economic importance may be extracted. In most cases the term applies to the metallic
deposit and is then qualified, e.g., iron ore, zinc ore etc.
Ore is made up of ore minerals, which are the part of the ore, usually metallic, that is
desirable for extraction.
Ore is usually composed of both ore mineral and the gangue. Gangue is the unwanted
matrix that dilutes the grade of the economic commodity or ore, and needs to be extracted
and rejected. It is separated in ore-dressing plants, and discarded in the form of tailings.

Frequently, an ore concentrate may contain minor amounts of a valuable commodity, which
are recovered only at the smelting stage.

In the definition of ore, it is usually indicated that it is the material which can be mined
with profit. But this may not be the case in case of state owned mines, where the material
may be extracted for providing employment and for political reasons, may not be for profit
at all.
The major non-renewable fuels are Coal, Petroleum, Natural Gas and nuclear materials.
They provide the energy necessary for the smelting of the ores into metals , their further
fabrication, electricity generation, transportation and all other energy using activities upon
which civilization is dependent upon.
Protore is the mineral material in which the initial but uneconomic concentration of the
metals has occurred. The protore may be further concentrated into ore by processes such as
near-surface reaction with ground water to give an enriched subsurface concentration
above the protore. The process is known as supergene enrichment. Tropical weathering of
some rock types may be sufficient to concentrate the economic deposits of some metals in
the residual blanket laterite or bauxite.
Economically mineable concentrations of ore minerals are known as ore deposits, ore
bodies, or ore shoots. Ore shoot is a large elongate, pipe-like or chimney-like mass of ore
within a deposit. It may be a part of a vein or part of a disseminated deposit. It represents
the most valuable part of the deposit that which is economically capable of being mined.
The size and dimensions of an ore shoot vary with the cost of the metal commodity at any
particular time.
Lode is defined as an ore deposit consisting of a zone of veins. It therefore has the same
meaning as ore shoot when applies to vein deposit. However ore shoot is a more generally
applicable term that encompasses both veined, massive and disseminated mineralization.
Both lode and ore shoot are outlines by the cut off grade, which is the concentration of the
ore mineral or minerals below which the mining operation is unprofitable.
Obviously if there is an increase in demand for a commodity, with an attendant increase in
marketable price, the cut off grade may be decreased and the outline of the ore shoot
expanded.
Many mining operations, initially set up with a particular cut-off grade, continue mining
lower grade material as the price of the commodity increases and mining methods become
more efficient.
Ore Reserves mean the amount of ore that has been defined by geological investigations,
including drilling of the deposit before mining. As mining proceeds, considerably more
geological information is obtained, so that improved estimates of the reserve become
available.
Hence reserves of a mine are dependent on the up-to-date known geological information,
and they will be modified as this information becomes more accurate through development.
Some reserves may not be realistic in the sense that they include unmineable material. For
example, the ore shoots may extend downwards to the depths at which mining operations
are impossible because of high temperatures. These are potential reserves, which are
uneconomic at present, but may be mined in future if the demand is great enough for the

company to air-condition the mine workings. Ore reserves of any mining region may be
further classified as proved, probable and possible.

Proved ore has been so thoroughly sampled that there can be no doubt of its outline.
Elsewhere, sampling may not have been so thorough, so that the other categories become
proved only after further information and exploitation.
Hydrothermal simply means heated water. Many different mineral deposits are
hydrothermally deposited meaning that they have been deposited from hot aqueous
solutions that have circulated through the pores and channelways within the country rocks.
The ore deposition may be disseminated within the pores or, in the case of fractured rocks,
deposited within fissures in the rocks. The hydrothermal solutions may be demonstrably
related to igneous intrusions or extrusions. The water may have been magmatic or meteoric
ground water, or water related from dehydration reactions resulting from metamorphic
reactions.
In many cases an igneous body, intruded high within the crust, has provided a localized heat
source that has provided a localized heat source that has acted as a centre for hydrothermal
circulation through the country rocks. In many other cases the hydrothermal solutions are
entirely ground water or the formation water that already occupied the pore spaces before
the igneous heat centre was emplaced. The only contribution from the magmatic body may
have been the heat. In other cases, late stage hydrothermal magmatic solutions may have
evolved from the magma itself, but with declining temperature there is usually mixing with
meteoric water. In case of hydrothermal circulation, there will be a definite, directed flow
through the rocks, away from the heat source, and therefore, the solutions will cool in that
direction. The ore elements will be deposited within a temperature range characteristic of
the particular elements present in the solution, and the pH and Eh conditions of the
environment.
In hydrothermal deposits, the thermal gradients will be demonstrated by a change in
mineralogy or mineral composition down the thermal gradient. Ideally, the grade of the ore
deposition defines a log normal distribution parallel to the flow direction. The actual
boundary between a shoot and barren ground is arbitrary. Therefore, the reserves of any
particular deposit need to be defined against a quoted cut-off grade.