Paleo-stratigraphic permeability anisotropy controls supergene mimetic martite goethite deposits

The Hamersley Basin in Western Australia is one of the world's largest iron ore-producing regions, hosting two types of ore in banded iron formations: the high-grade martite-microplaty haematite and the supergene martite-goethite ores. With the high-grade ores almost entirely mined in the last decade, the supergene ores have more recently become the dominant resource of interest. Consequently, understanding the genesis of these martite-goethite deposits is a critical step for exploration. Yet, although various models exist, there is still no consensus on how these mineral resources formed, complicating the prediction of resource volume and location. Here, we show that the paleo-stratigraphic permeability anisotropy (with higher permeability along strata than across) controls the supergene mimetic enrichment transport process and, subsequently, the mineralisation distribution. We introduce a flow model that implicitly represents strata with a potential function that orients the permeability tensor accurately. The numerical solver uses automatic mesh adaptivity to deliver robust solutions. By accurately reproducing the mineralisation patterns in specific deposits, we identify and quantify the paleo-water table level and permeability anisotropy ratio as the two main controlling parameters for the mineralisation distribution. These insights provide new timing constraints for the mineralisation and the physical process of iron enrichment, suggesting much more potential mineralisation volume in the paleo-reconstructed zones than previously anticipated. These flow models allow us to draw geological conclusions with few a priori assumptions required for the genetic model in which the transport component is dominant. The predictive power of this methodology will allow targeted drilling to narrow down the prospective areas and lower exploration costs. Furthermore, the methodology's generality applies to other commodities in sedimentary basins involving supergene processes and will improve our understanding of various genetic models.     

The study of the undiscovered mineral resources of the Tongass National Forest and adjacent lands,Southeastern Alaska

The quantitative probabilistic assessment of the undiscovered mineral resources of the 17.1-million-acre Tongass National Forest (the largest in the United States) and its adjacent lands is a nonaggregated, mineral-resource-tract-oriented assessment designed for land-planning purposes. As such, it includes the renewed use of gross-in-place values (GIPV's) in dollars of the estimated amounts of metal contained in the undiscovered resources as a measure for land-use planning.Southeastern Alaska is geologically complex and contains a wide variety of known mineral deposits, some of which have produced important amounts of metals during the past 100 years. Regional geological, economic geological, geochemical, geophysical, and mineral exploration history information for the region was integrated to define 124 tracts likely to contain undiscovered mineral resources. Some tracts were judged to contain more than one type of mineral deposit. Each type of deposit may contain one or more metallic elements of economic interest. For tracts where information was sufficient, the minimum number of as-yet-undiscovered deposits of each type was estimated at probability levels of 0.95, 0.90, 0.50, 0.10, and 0.05.The undiscovered mineral resources of the individual tracts were estimated using the U.S. Geological Survey's MARK3 mineral-resource endowment simulator; those estimates were used to calculate GIPV's for the individual tracts. Those GIPV's were aggregated to estimate the value of the undiscovered mineral resources of southeastern Alaska. The aggregated GIPV of the estimates is $40.9 billion.Analysis of this study indicates that (1) there is only a crude positive correlation between the size of individual tracts and their mean GIPV's: and (2) the number of mineral-deposit types in a tract does not dominate the GIPV's of the tracts, but the inferred presence of synorogenic-synvolcanic nickel-copper, porphyry copper skarn-related, iron skarn, and porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits does. The influence of this study on the U.S. Forest Service planning process is yet to be determined.     

Geologic anomaly analysis for space-time distribution of mineral deposits in the middle-lower Yangtze area, southeastern China

A geologic anomaly is a geologic feature or structure that departs markedly from its surrounding environment with respect to composition, texture, or genesis. The analysis of geologic anomalies related to mineralization is based upon specific geologic factors and a combination of features, such as structural, temporal, and spatial, and draws upon special effects that are due to ore-forming processes. An analysis of the geologic anomalies in the, middle-lower Yangtze area in southeastern China has led to an interpretation of the relation between anomaly subtypes and the occurrence and spatial distribution of ore deposits. Consequently, the following conclusions have been reached: the type of anomaly reflects the controlling factors that led to the formation of iron, copper, and gold deposits in the area; sedimentary geologic anomalies are most closely associated with stratiform deposits; structral complexity anomalies are most closely associated with Cu−Fe−Au deposits; magmatic anomalies reflect geologic processes in which Fe and Cu elements were separated from magma and enriched into ores; and the geologic combination entropy anomaly is proposed as a comprehensive variable that is related to favorable ore-forming environments and that can serve as a quantitative index that can be used in mineral exploration.     

Metallic Mineral Resources in the Twenty-First Century: II. Constraints on Future Supply

Supplying worldwide demand of metallic raw materials throughout the rest of this century may require 5–10 times the amount of metals contained in known ore deposits. This demand can be met only if mineral deposits containing the required masses of metals, in excess of present day ore reserves, exist in the Earth’s crust. It is, by definition, not known whether or not such mineral deposits exist. On the basis of the statistical distribution of metal tonnages contained in known ore deposits, however, it is possible to place constraints on the size distribution of the deposits that must be discovered in order to meet the expected demand. A nondimensional analysis of the distribution of metal tonnages in deposits of 20 metals shows that most of them follow distributions that, although not strictly lognormal, share important characteristics with a lognormal distribution. Chief among these is the observation that frequency falls off symmetrically and geometrically with deposit size, relative to a median deposit size that is approximately equal to the geometric mean deposit size. An immediate consequence of this behavior is that most of the metal endowment is concentrated in deposits that are several orders of magnitude larger than the median deposit size, and that are much rarer than the most common deposits that cluster around the median deposit size. The analysis reveals remarkable similarities among the statistical distributions of most of the metals included in this study, in particular, the fact that distribution of most metals can be fully described with essentially the same value (about 2–3) of the scale parameter, σ, which is the only parameter needed to describe the behavior of a normalized lognormal variable. This observation makes it possible to derive the following general conclusions, which are applicable to most metals—both scarce and abundant. First, it is unlikely that undiscovered mineral deposits of sizes comparable to those that contain most of the known metal endowment exist in sufficient quantities to supply the expected worldwide demand throughout the rest of this century. Second, if the expected demand is to be met, one must hope that very large deposits, perhaps up to one order of magnitude larger than the largest known deposits, exist in accessible portions of the Earth’s crust, and that these deposits are discovered.     

钾盐资源全球分布和我国找钾实践及方法探究

世界各国大型古代海相固体钾盐矿床多数是在石油、盐岩矿、盐泉卤水等资源的勘查过程中被发现的。国内几十年的找钾实践证实,我国缺乏大型海相固体钾盐矿床,近年来在新生代陆相沉积盆地中寻找大型固体钾盐矿床的努力也没有取得明显进展。我国已探明的钾盐储量主要分布在青海柴达木盆地和新疆罗布泊的11个盐湖及其晶间卤水中,约占资源总量的90%以上;以固体钾矿赋存的资源量少且品位不高,仅占己知总量的2.6%。从1958年察尔汗盐滩生产出第一批953吨钾肥填补我国钾肥生产的空白,到年产150万吨KCl的卤水钾盐开发规模的形成;从1995年在罗布泊发现大型卤水钾矿,到2008年预期生产120万吨K2SO4,显示了我国干旱区盐湖卤水钾盐资源的重要位置。有专家建议,今后的工作应在深入研究成盐盆地基底构造和岩相古地理的基础上,进一步划分可能成钾的次级盆地并进行重点勘探和研究。借鉴世界各国找钾经验,将地质观察分析、地球物理探测、地球化学与水化学等方法综合运用,我国的探盐找钾工作有可能取得突破性进展。     

地面高精度磁测在西藏恰功铁矿勘查中的应用效果

恰功铁矿是近几年新发现的矿山,然而矿体的形态、大小、埋深、位置、产状、边界等几何特征还没有被认识清楚。为了弄清这些问题,本文通过欧拉反褶积方法对磁异常化极数据进行了反演,反演矿体深度为0-120m;在C-6异常中心选择了两条剖面进行了2.5维拟合反演,反演矿体厚度为20~30m,欧拉反褶积反演结果和2.5维拟合反演结果与ZK32钻孔验证结果相吻合。最后,通过建立恰功矽卡岩型铁矿地质—地球物理找矿模型,为该地区寻找隐伏夕卡岩型铁矿提供了思路。     

Global Resource Assessments of Primary Metals: An Optimistic Reality Check

The mining of primary metals is critical for a range of modern infrastructure and goods and the continuing growth in global population and consumption means that these primary metals are expected to remain in high demand. However, metallic deposits are, in essence, finite and non-renewable—leading to some concern that we may run out of a given metal in the future. Here, we address this concern by presenting a brief review of the reporting of mineral resource estimates, compiling detailed datasets for national and global trends in mineral resources for numerous metals, and present detailed case studies of major mining projects or fields. The evidence clearly shows strong growth in known mineral resources and cumulative production over time rather than any evidence of gradual resource depletion. In addition, the key factors that already govern existing mining projects and mineral resources are certainly social, environmental and economic in nature rather than geological or related to physical resource depletion. Overall, there is great room for optimism in terms of humankind’s ability to supply future generations with the metals they will require.     

Multifractal Modeling of Worldwide and Canadian Metal Size-Frequency Distributions

The Pareto-lognormal frequency distribution, which can result from multifractal cascade modeling, previously was shown to be useful to describe the worldwide size-frequency distributions of metals including copper, zinc, gold and silver in ore deposits. In this paper, it is shown that the model also can be used for the size-frequency distributions of these metals in Canada which covers 6.6% of the continental crust. Like their worldwide equivalents, these Canadian deposits show two significant departures from the Pareto-lognormal model: (1) there are too many small deposits, and (2) there are too few deposits in the transition zone between the central lognormal and the upper tail Pareto describing the size-frequency distribution of the largest deposits. Probable causes of these departures are: (1) historically, relatively many small ore deposits were mined before bulk mining methods became available in the twentieth century, and (2) economically, giant and supergiant deposits are preferred for mining and these have strongest geophysical and geochemical anomalies. It is shown that there probably exist many large deposits that have not been discovered or mined. Although overall the samples of the size-frequency distributions are very large, frequencies uncertainties associated with the largest deposits are relatively small and it remains difficult to estimate more precisely how many undiscovered mineral deposits there are in the upper tails of the size-frequency distributions of the metals considered.

     

Computer Monte Carlo simulation in quantitative resource estimation

The method of making quantitative assessments of mineral resources sufficiently detailed for economic analysis is outlined in three steps. The steps are (1) determination of types of deposits that may be present in an area, (2) estimation of the numbers of deposits of the permissible deposit types, and (3) combination by Monte Carlo simulation of the estimated numbers of deposits with the historical grades and tonnages of these deposits to produce a probability distribution of the quantities of contained metal.Two examples of the estimation of the number of deposits (step 2) are given. The first example is for mercury deposits in southwestern Alaska and the second is for lode tin deposits in the Seward Peninsula.The flow of the Monte Carlo simulation program is presented with particular attention to the dependencies between grades and tonnages of deposits and between grades of different metals in the same deposit.     

Potential Use of Remote Sensing Techniques for Exploration of Iron Deposits in Western Sahara and Southwest of Algeria

At present, Western Sahara is politically one of the most sensitive areas of the World. Its economic development could be achieved through the exploitation of mineral resources that can be found in the almost unexplored area administrated by the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. In this paper, we describe applications of known and cost-effective remote sensing techniques to detect and map areas containing mineral deposits, through the enhancement of Landsat ETM+ imageries. Several image processing techniques (false color composite, band ratioing, and principal component analysis) were used to highlight the presence of iron deposits. Two test areas were selected, one in Western Sahara and another one in Algeria. The occurrence of iron deposits in these test areas was assured using literature data for the Algerian test site and through a field campaign for the Western Sahara. There is good agreement between the ground truth data and the results obtained by the enhancements of the satellite images. Landsat images can be downloaded free of charge and their enhancements does not need expensive hardware or software tools. Therefore this technology could be transferred to the Saharawi technicians, enabling them to explore and manage the mineral resources of their own country independently.     

Resource depletion calculated by the ratio of the reserve plus cumulative consumption to the crustal abundance for gold

The magnitude of the world's mineral consumption has increased sharply, and there is no sign that growth is likely to stop in the near future. Currently, new discoveries and technology add to the reserves of varous mineral commodities at a rate that has exceeded depletion. As a result, life expectancies have remained nearly constant. However, it is questionable whether this condition is sustainable in the future. Therefore, most of our attention to the future has been focused on potentially recoverable resources. The potentially recoverable resources for 35 minerals in the Earth's crust were estimated based on the relationship between crustal abundance and the reserve of currently recoverable gold. The ratio of the reserve plus cumulative consumption to the abundance of gold is appropriate for calculating reserves of other mineral resources because gold has the highest profit margin for exploration of reserves. From an economic perspective, the price of gold is 350 times the mean value of 33 other resources for calculating production versus price. New mining technologies and new processing methods have been developed during the last 20 years as a response to high prices. As a result, five times the reserves available in 1970 have now been discovered, and two times the reserves available in 1970 were consumed during the past two decades. It is questionable whether other mineral commodities can reach the ratio of reserve plus cumulative consumption to abundance that gold does. Using this concept, the limit of the Earth's resources under present technology was calculated for 35 mineral resources, based on the ratio of the reserve plus cumulative consumption to abundance for gold. Even though recoverable tonnage of lead, silver, tin, boron, copper, and mercury from ore deposits in the Earth's crust is relatively low, the abundance of these metals is apparently sufficient for future supplies. However, considering the special situation of gold created by its very high price compared to world production, there is anxiety concerning steep increases in the price or depletion of these metals, which have a shorter lifetime from a geochemical point of view.     

Metallic Mineral Resources in the Twenty-First Century. I. Historical Extraction Trends and Expected Demand

Industrial, technological, and economic developments depend on the availability of metallic raw materials. As a greater fraction of the Earth’s population has become part of developed economies and as developed societies have become more affluent, the demand on metallic mineral resources has increased. Yet metallic minerals are non-renewable natural resources, the supply of which, even if unknown and potentially large, is finite. An analysis of historical extraction trends for eighteen metals, going back to the year 1900, demonstrates that demand of metallic raw materials has increased as a result of both increase in world population and increase in per-capita consumption. These eighteen metals can be arranged into four distinct groups, for each of which it is possible to identify a consistent pattern of per-capita demand as a function of time. These patterns can, in turn, be explained in terms of the industrial and technological applications, and in some cases conventional uses as well, of the metals in each group. Under the assumption that these patterns will continue into the future, and that world population will grow by no more than about 50% by the year 2100, one can estimate the amount of metallic raw materials that will be required to sustain the world’s economy throughout the twenty-first century. From the present until the year 2100, the world can be expected to require about one order of magnitude more metal than the total amount of metal that fueled technological and economic growth between the age of steam and the present day. For most of the metals considered here, this corresponds to 5–10 times the amount of metal contained in proven ore reserves. The two chief driving factors of this expected demand are growth in per-capita consumption and present-day absolute population numbers. World population is already so large that additional population growth makes only a small contribution to the expected future demand of metallic raw materials. It is not known whether or not the amount of metal required to sustain the world’s economy throughout this century exists in exploitable mineral resources. In the accompanying paper, I show that it is nevertheless possible to make statistical inferences about the size distribution of the mineral deposits that will need to be discovered and developed in order to satisfy the expected demand. Those results neither prove nor disprove that the needed resources exist but can be used to improve our understanding of the challenges facing future supply of metallic raw materials.     

Compositional changes in sediments of subalpine lakes,Uinta Mountains (Utah): evidence for the effects of human activity on atmospheric dust inputs

Sediments in Marshall and Hidden Lakes in the Uinta Mountains of northeastern Utah contain records of atmospheric mineral-dust deposition as revealed by differences in mineralogy and geochemistry of lake sediments relative to Precambrian clastic rocks in the watersheds. In cores spanning more than a thousand years, the largest changes in composition occurred within the past approximately 140 years. Many elements associated with ore deposits (Ag, As, Bi, Cd, Cu, In, Mo, Pb, S, Sb, Sn, and Te) increase in the lake sediments above depths that correspond to about AD 1870. Sources of these metals from mining districts to the west of the Uinta Mountains are suggested by (1) the absence of mining and smelting of these metals in the Uinta Mountains, and (2) lower concentrations of most of these elements in post-settlement sediments of Hidden Lake than in those of Marshall Lake, which is closer to areas of mining and the densely urbanized part of north-central Utah that is termed the Wasatch Front, and (3) correspondence of Pb isotopic compositions in the sediments with isotopic composition of ores likely to have been smelted in the Wasatch Front. A major source of Cu in lake sediments may have been the Bingham Canyon open-pit mine 110 km west of Marshall Lake. Numerous other sources of metals beyond the Wasatch Front are likely, on the basis of the widespread increases of industrial activities in western United States since about AD 1900. In sediment deposited since ca. AD 1945, as estimated using ^239+240Pu activities, increases in concentrations of Mn, Fe, S, and some other redox-sensitive metals may result partly from diagenesis related to changes in redox. However, our results indicate that these elemental increases are also related to atmospheric inputs on the basis of their large increases that are nearly coincident with abrupt increases in silt-sized, titanium-bearing detrital magnetite. Such magnetite is interpreted as a component of atmospheric dust, because it is absent in catchment bedrock. Enrichment of P in sediments deposited after ca. AD 1950 appears to be caused largely by atmospheric inputs, perhaps from agricultural fertilizer along with magnetite-bearing soil.     

Estimates of Number of Undiscovered Deposits of Gold,Silver, Copper,Lead, and Zinc in the United States

Estimates of the number of undiscovered deposits offer a unique perspective on the nation's undiscovered mineral resources. As part of the 1998 assessment of undiscovered deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc, estimates of the number of deposits were made for 305 of the 447 permissive tracts delineated in 19 assessment regions of the country. By aggregating number of undiscovered deposits by deposit type and by assessment region, a picture of the nation's undiscovered resources has emerged. For the nation as a whole, the mean estimate for the number of undiscovered deposits is 950. There is a 90% chance there are at least 747 undiscovered deposits and a 10% chance there are as many as 1,160 undiscovered deposits. For Alaska, the mean estimate for the number of undiscovered deposits is 281. There is a 90% chance there are at least 168 undiscovered deposits and a 10% chance there are as many as 402 undiscovered deposits. Assuming that the majority of deposits used to create the grade and tonnage models that formed the basis for estimating the number of undiscovered deposits are significant deposits, there remain about as many undiscovered deposits as have already been discovered. Consideration of the number of undiscovered deposits as part of national assessments carried out on a recurring basis serves as a leading indicator of the nation's total mineral resources.     

东昆仑迪木那里克铁矿地质特征与找矿标志

迪木那里克铁矿位于阿尔金大断裂南侧,矿体主要赋存于中-上奥陶统祁曼塔格群浅变质的碎屑岩-火山碎屑岩中.矿体多呈似层状、条带状产出,部分矿体塑性变形较强,矿体与地层产状基本一致,层控作用比较明显;矿石主要为条带状石英-磁铁矿和块状磁铁矿矿石;矿石品位较低(TFe=20%～40%);围岩蚀变特征明显.该铁矿属沉积变质型铁矿.综合研究发现,可利用矿区地层、构造、岩石蚀变情况、航磁异常等作为矿区和区域找矿标志.     

Geometallurgical Approach for Implications of Ore Blending on Cyanide Leaching and Adsorption Behavior of Witwatersrand Gold Ores,South Africa

Gold production in South Africa is projected to continue its decline in future, and prospects for discovery of new high-grade deposits are limited. Many of the mining companies have resorted to mining and processing low-grade and complex gold ores. Such ores are technically challenging to process, which results in low recovery rates, excessive reagent consumption and high operating costs when compared to free-milling gold ores. In the Witwatersrand mines, options of blending low-grade gold ores with high-grade ores exist. Although it is well known that most of the Witwatersrand gold ores are highly amenable to gold cyanidation, not much is known on the leachability of blended ores, especially the effects of mineralogical and metallurgical variability between different gold ores. In this study, we apply a geometallurgical approach to investigate mineralogical and metallurgical factors that influence the leaching of blended ores in a set of bottle shaker and reactor column tests. Three gold-bearing conglomerate units, so-called reefs, i.e., Carbon Leader Reef, Ventersdorp Contact Reef and the Black Reef, all in the Carletonville goldfield, were sampled. The ores were prepared using a terminator jaw crusher followed by vertical spindle pulverizer (20 kg aliquot) and high-pressure grinding rolls (80 kg aliquot). Mineralogical analysis was conducted using a range of complementary tools such as optical microscopy, QEMSCAN and micro–XCT. The results show that Witwatersrand gold ores are amenable to the process of ore blending. Some of the ores, however, contain impervious inert gangue and reactive ore minerals. Leach solution can only access gold locked in impervious gangue minerals through HPGR-induced pores and/or cracks. The optimum ore blending ratio of the bottle shaker experiments (p80?=???75 μm) comprises 60% Carbon Leader Reef, 20% Ventersdorp Contact Reef and 20% Black Reef and yields 92% recovered Au over a leach period of 40 h. Blended ores with high carbonaceous material (>?1 wt% carbonaceous material, (Black Reef?=?36–60%) yield lower recoveries of 60–69% Au). Ore leaching at the mixed-bed reactor column (??75 μm and ??5.6/+?4 mm) yields about 70% over a leach period of two weeks. We therefore suggest that the feasibility of ore blending is strongly controlled by the mineralogy of the constituent ores and that a mixed-bed reactor may be a viable alternative method for leaching of the low-grade Witwatersrand gold ores. Material from certain reefs, such as the Black Reef, has synergistic/antagonistic (nonadditive) blending effects. The overall implication of this study is that ore blending ratios, effects of comminution on mineral liberation, an association of gold with other minerals, and gold adsorption behavior will greatly inform future technology choices in the area of geometallurgy.

     

Pareto–Lognormal Modeling of Known and Unknown Metal Resources

Recently, large worldwide databases with statistics on amounts of metal in mineral deposits have become available. Frequently, most metal is contained in the largest deposits for a metal. A major problem in meaningful modeling of the size–frequency distributions of the largest deposits is that they are very rare. Until now it was rather difficult to establish the exact form of their size–frequency distribution. However, because of the new very large databases it can now be concluded that two commonly used approaches (lognormal and Pareto) thought to be mutually incompatible in the past, are both correct with a high probability. One approach does not necessarily exclude validity of the other. Patiño-Douce (Nat Resour Res 25(1):97–124, 2016b) has shown that metal tonnage frequency distributions for worldwide metal deposits are approximately lognormal with similar standard deviations (σ) of log-transformed data. In this paper, it is assumed that worldwide metals satisfy both lognormal and Pareto models simultaneously. Copper and Au are taken for example for comparison with results previously obtained for these two metals in the Abitibi area of the Canadian Shield. Worldwide there are 2541 Cu deposits approximately satisfying a lognormal distribution. Total amount of Cu in these deposits is 2.319 × 10⁹ tons of Cu. However, the 45 largest deposits, which together contain 1.281 × 10⁹ tons of Cu, satisfy a Pareto distribution. If their lognormal model would apply in the upper tail as well, these 45 largest deposits should have contained only about 0.076 × 10⁹ tons of Cu. It is shown in detail for Cu that the best statistical model for Cu deposits is a worldwide Pareto–lognormal model in which the basic lognormal size–frequency distribution is flanked by two juxtaposed Pareto distributions for the largest and smallest Cu deposits, respectively. Both Pareto distributions smoothly change into the central lognormal by means of bridge functions that can be determined separately. The worldwide Pareto–lognormal model also was found to be applicable to several other metals, especially Ag, Ni, Pb, and U. For Au, the model does not work as well for the upper tail Pareto distribution as it does for the other metals taken for example.     

阿尔泰山砂金成矿背景分析

在分析阿尔泰山地质演化历史的基础上．讨论了相关地质体为该区砂金矿提供物源的可能性。指出从石炭纪到二叠纪。广泛发育的原生金矿床构成了该造山带金的专属成矿域。所以原生金矿是砂金最主要的物源。新生代,阿尔泰山在喜马拉雅运动影响下,发生差异性升降和遭受非均一性剥蚀．导致砂金矿在空间分布上和原生金矿成反消长关系。在砂金成矿过程中,氧化还原反应起着积极作用。