This document discusses mineral deposits that form from magmatic processes. It describes the Minnamar copper-nickel deposit located in Minnesota's Duluth Complex. The deposit consists of disseminated copper and nickel minerals along the base of an intrusive gabbro unit, extending up to 750 meters deep. Higher grade portions of the deposit contain over 0.6% copper in zones at least 15 meters thick. The sulfide minerals present include cubanite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and pentlandite. The document also discusses models for immiscible liquid injection and the association between specific rock types and common magmatic ore minerals.
This document discusses mineral deposits that form from magmatic processes. It describes the Minnamar copper-nickel deposit located in Minnesota's Duluth Complex. The deposit consists of disseminated copper and nickel minerals along the base of an intrusive gabbro unit, extending up to 750 meters deep. Higher grade portions of the deposit contain over 0.6% copper in zones at least 15 meters thick. The sulfide minerals present include cubanite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and pentlandite. The document also discusses models for immiscible liquid injection and the association between specific rock types and common magmatic ore minerals.
This document discusses mineral deposits that form from magmatic processes. It describes the Minnamar copper-nickel deposit located in Minnesota's Duluth Complex. The deposit consists of disseminated copper and nickel minerals along the base of an intrusive gabbro unit, extending up to 750 meters deep. Higher grade portions of the deposit contain over 0.6% copper in zones at least 15 meters thick. The sulfide minerals present include cubanite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and pentlandite. The document also discusses models for immiscible liquid injection and the association between specific rock types and common magmatic ore minerals.
This document discusses mineral deposits that form from magmatic processes. It describes the Minnamar copper-nickel deposit located in Minnesota's Duluth Complex. The deposit consists of disseminated copper and nickel minerals along the base of an intrusive gabbro unit, extending up to 750 meters deep. Higher grade portions of the deposit contain over 0.6% copper in zones at least 15 meters thick. The sulfide minerals present include cubanite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and pentlandite. The document also discusses models for immiscible liquid injection and the association between specific rock types and common magmatic ore minerals.
have been suggested. Recent geological studies of the layered Duluth Complex have resutted in a resurgence of explora- tion activity and.success in discovering minerali- zation and ore deposits. The Minnamar copper- nickel deposit is a prime example that occurs in a relatively uncomplicated southeasterly dipping se- ries of formations that make-up a portion of the Complex. The deposit is located 8 Km south of Babbitt, Ir{innesota. It is localized along the base of the Gabbro Complex and extends along a 5 Km length of the gabbro contact and is about 2 km miles in width. Mineralization consists of disseminated copper and nickel extending from the surface downdip to a depth of 750 meters. Higher grade portions of the deposit of >0.60 percent copper through a mini- mum thickness of l5 meters ate the Bathtub deposit on the west side that cxtends from 365 to 490 meters in depth and the Tiger Boy deposit that extends from 425 to 680 meters in depth. The sulfides are principally cubanite, nonmagnetic pyrrtotitc, chal- copyrite, and pentlandite. Scmc massive sulfides are localized at the base of the mineralized intrusive and also in the underlying hornfels. Immiscible Liquid Injection. If the sulfide-rich frac- tion accumulated in the manner described above, and should be subjected to disturbance before con- solidation, it might be squirted out toward places of less pressure, such as sheared or brecciated areas along the margins of the consolidated mother rock or in the enclosing rocks. There it will consolidate to form immiscible liquid injections. Such deposits give unmistakable evidence of late magmatic age. They intrude older rocks and enclose brecciated fragments of foreign rock. They exhibit the intru- sive relations of dikes. The ore minerals penetrate, corrode, alter, and even replace the silicates. The remnants of consolidation produce some hydroth- ermal alteration of the surrounding silicates. The deposits are irregular or dikelike in form. If the residual fraction is rich in volatiles, the resulting deposits might display transitions into hydrother- mal types. Flguro 5{ Generalized diagram ot'fiiinra type intrusion. Black ditferentiated bssal zone carrying nickelcopper sulphides. (ArEr D. L Scholtz. Geol. Soc. South Africa, 1936). Examples of this class of deposit are thc Vlack- fontein mine of South Africa and probably somc of the Norway nickel deposits. ASSOCTATION OF ROCKS AND MIT{ERAL PRODUCTS Definte associations exist between specific mag- matic ores and certain kinds of rocks. Platinum occurs only with mafic to ultramafic rock, nrch as the varieties of norite, peridotite, or their aitcration products. Chromite, with rare exceptions is found only in peridotite, anorthosite, and similar mafic rocks. Titaniferous magnetite and ilmenitc are mothered by gabbro and anorthosite, and magrnatic magnetite deposits occur with syenitc. Nickc[cop per deposits are associated universally with norite, and magmatic corundum with nepheline scycaitc. Diamonds occur in comrnercial quantitics only in kimberlite, a variety of peridotite. Pegmatitc min- erals such as beryl, cassiterite, lepidolitc, schcclitc, and niobium-bearing minerals occur chicf,y with granitic rocks. It is thus seen that the decpscated mafic rocks are the associates of most of the im- portant magmatic mineral deposits, which indicates a genetic relationship, probably during thc carly magmatic history of mafic rocks. Selected Readings on Magmatic Concentratioa Bushveld igneous complex-Magmatic ore dcposits. 1969. J. Willemse. Econ. Geol. Mono., no.4, p. t- 22. Chronite, ntagnetite, and platinum dcposits. Also vanadiferous magnetite.r, p. 187-208. Occurrence and characteristics of chromite dcpsits- Eastern Bushveld complex, 1969. Eugenc N. Cam' eron and A. Desborough. Econ. Geol. Moao., no. 4, p. 23-40; also by E. N. Cameron, Econ- Geol., r.54 p.l15l-1213, 1959. Chrontite deposits af this classical araa. Stillwater, I{ontana, chromite deposits. 1969. Edward Sampson. Econ. Geol. Mono.. no.4p.72-75. Chromite seams--Great Dyke, Rhodesia. 1969. R- Bi. cham. Econ. Geol. Mono., no. 4, p. 95-lll. Mag- matic concenlration in separale intrusions- Gravity Differentiation and llagmatic Podiform Chrom- ite Deposits. 1969. T. P. Thayer. Ecoa. Geol.