10 What is an ore deposit?

106
O

major elements
Si Continental crust
105 Bulk solid Earth

1% Fe
104 compatible lithophile
element (Cr) - enriched
1000 in mantle over crust
log scale
Sr Ba incompatible lithophile
concentration
(ppm) 100 elements (REEs)
Cr - enriched in crust
Pb
10
1 ppm U
1

trace elements
10–1
Be
10–2
1 ppb Au
Pd
10–3
siderophile elements Pt
(Pd, Pt etc) - partitioned
10–4 into core, strongly
depleted in crust

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
atomic number (Z)
Figure 1.5 Element concentrations by atomic number in bulk solid Earth, as a proxy for its
composition at the time of condensation, and in continental crust showing the range of element
abundances over about nine orders of magnitude, and examples of relative enrichment and
depletion into the crust that result from separation of the core and from formation of the crust
through partial melting of mantle. Concentration data from GERM database at http://earthref.
org/GERM.

in the core. Melting in the upper mantle progressively through Earth’s history has
produced a chemically distinct buoyant long-lived crust. Some elements are more abun-
dant in the crust than in the Earth as a whole, while others are less abundant (Figure 1.5).
Except for Fe, Al and Ti, a typical crustal rock contains economically valuable metals
in trace concentrations (Table 1.3). These trace elements are present either as minor
components in solid solution in silicate and oxide minerals (e.g. Cu in mafic silicates) or
as major components in accessory minerals (e.g. Zr in zircon).

1.3 The geology of ore deposits

................................................................................
A geological definition of an ore deposit
As ore is rock from which it is economic to extract a commodity, we need to consider how
costs of extraction vary with different rocks and different rock mineralogy. The major
costs of the operation of a large open-pit mine are rock haulage (e.g. transport of rock
from the mine to the mill, and of waste rock to a dump) and rock crushing. Labour costs
normally dominate operational costs of an underground mine, but the underlying cause is

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11 1.3 The geology of ore deposits

Energy used/unit mass recovered

trac metals in isomorphic
e el substitution
eme
nts

metals concentrated in
maj separate ore minerals
or e
lem
ents

Grade (%)

Figure 1.6 Schematic of the energy required to extract metals from ores and rocks
of different grade and mineralogy (after Skinner, 1976).

similar as for open-pit mines – the costs of mining are proportional to the tons of rock
moved and processed. The reward is the mass of commodity sold. If all other factors (e.g.
mineralogy) are constant, the costs of extracting a commodity per mass are to a first
approximation inversely proportional to the concentration (grade) of the element in the
rock (Figure 1.6). The high energy costs of extracting trace elements from isomorphous
solution in common minerals, especially from silicate minerals, mean that there are few
ores from which such extraction is made; a point that is also apparent in the listing of ore
minerals in Table 1.2. In general, the most cost effective extraction is from minerals that
have a high concentration of the metal mined from rocks of high grade.
Approximate present-day economic grades of ore bodies for a number of metals are listed
in Table 1.4. For most metals, the economic grades for mining have decreased through
history, largely as a result of advances in the technology of mining and extraction, and
decreasing costs of haulage. The enrichment factor over average concentrations (Clarke of
concentration) required for an ore to be economic ranges from a few times for some major
elements up to many orders of magnitude for trace metals such as Au, Pt and Hg. The
enrichment factor generally increases with decreasing abundance of the element in the crust.
In general, ore deposits of a metal are rocks in which the concentration of the metal is
significantly higher than in average crust. They are natural enrichments of the metal in the
Earth’s crust, they are geochemical anomalies. A similar definition applies for deposits of
industrial minerals – these are natural concentrations of the mineral of interest.
A mixed economic–geological definition of an ore deposit in the case of metal ores
would thus be:

an ore deposit is a rock body in which there is a naturally enriched concentration of one or more
metals and from which it is economic to extract these metals.

The significance of ore deposit size

The smallest commercial mine operations, for instance on veins, are typically of ore
bodies of about 1 Mt, which is equivalent to a cube of rock about 75 m across, the exact
volume depending on rock density. The largest ore deposits are a few gigatonnes,
equivalent to an open pit a few kilometres long and several hundred metres deep. For

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12 What is an ore deposit?

Table 1.4
Clarke ¼ average Clarke of concentration ¼
concentration in Grade in typical enrichment factor average
Metal upper crust ore crust ! ore
Al 8% 30% 4
Fe 5% 60% 12
Ti 5700 5% 10
Mn 950 5% 50
Cr 100 5% 500
Li 20 1% 500
U 3 0.1% 300
Sn 2 1% 5000
W 1.5 0.3% 2000
Ni 75 1% 100
Zn 70 10% 1000
Cu 55 1% 200
Pb 12 10% 10 000
Mo 1.5 0.3% 2000
Ag 0.1 100 1000
Hg 0.1 1% 100 000
Au 0.004 5 1200
Pt 0.002 5 2500

Concentrations of some economically important metals in average upper crust, and typical
grades and enrichment factors of ores. Compositions are in ppm, except where indicated.
Note that the list gives average grades of ore bodies. In any ore body there will be a range of
ore grades, ore will be mined at lower grades than average, and a mine will have internal cut-
off grades below which rock is considered sub-economic ore or waste (compare Figure 1.2).

any metal and ore deposit type, mined ore bodies vary in size, typically by about two to
three orders of magnitude. A common graphical representation of ore deposit grade and
size is of log grade versus log tonnage of deposits (Figure 1.7), with diagonal lines
showing the contained mass of the commodity metal.
Ore deposit size plays two roles in the economics of mining. First, economies of scale
mean it is generally cheaper to mine a ton of ore in a large deposit than in a small one.
Large, open-pit mines can generally profitably mine lower-grade rocks than indicated in
Table 1.4. These economies of scale are implied from the inclined lower cut-off of the
distribution of deposits by grade and tonnage that is apparent in Figure 1.7.
The lower limit of ore tonnage in plots such as Figure 1.7 is also largely controlled by
economic factors. There are accumulations of ore minerals that are smaller, but these are
not plotted. Such accumulations are too small to be economical to extract and are known as
occurrences. They are of scientific interest, but are not listed in inventories or deposits.
Prospects are known accumulations of ore minerals which have the potential to be
identified as ore deposits with thorough exploration, for instance drilling. The upper limits
of the ranges of grade and tonnage are geological. Large, high-grade deposits are rare.

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