Political and commercial geology and the world's mineral resources
Science
Political and commercial geology and the world's mineral resources
Geology, Economic; Mines and mineral resources
The Alexo Mine is situated 150 miles due north of Sudbury. The ore
occurs at the contact of a large mass of peridotite (now altered to
serpentine), with a pillow-lava which the peridotite intruded. The
ore consists of sulphide minerals segregated from the intrusive mass.
It is of two types, one, a massive, pure sulphide occupying cracks
in dike-like relationship, the other, disseminated sulphide in
peridotite adjacent to the sulphide ore masses. The ore deposit has a
proven length of 700 feet, has been opened to a depth of 120 feet, and
drilling has shown ore to extend to a depth of 240 feet. The average
width may be taken as approximately 10 feet. By the end of 1916, ore
had been raised to the extent of 34,650 tons and more than that amount
had been developed. About 12,000 tons of ore were shipped in 1915,
averaging about 4.9 per cent. nickel and 0.6 per cent. copper. Several
hundred thousand tons are probably available in this deposit.
The nickel ore deposits of _Norway_ are similar mineralogically to
those of Sudbury. The deposits are small, their metal content is low,
and compared to the Sudbury and New Caledonia deposits they are of
little consequence. Up to 1909 there had been mined and smelted in
Norway about 400,000 tons of nickel ore. The hand-sorted ore carried
1.4 to 1.7 per cent. of nickel.
Deposits like those of Norway have been found in _Sweden_, but
they have not been worked in recent years. There is evidently a
nickeliferous metallographic province in the Scandinavian countries and
important ore deposits may yet be found there.
In the _United States_, near Gap, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
is a deposit of nickel ore of the sulphide type, which occurs as
a segregation from a 300-ft. dike of amphibolite. It was worked
spasmodically for copper throughout the 18th century. Nickel was
discovered in the ore in 1852 and 4,000,000 pounds of nickel are
estimated to have been produced up to 1882. The advent of New Caledonia
and Sudbury ores caused the closing of the mine. The ore as mined
carried 1 to 3 per cent. nickel and about one-third as much copper.
Near Julian, San Diego County, California, is a sulphide nickel deposit
that has never been commercially productive. Assays show the ore to
contain nearly 3 per cent. nickel or more.
A small deposit in _Tasmania_ has produced a few thousand tons of rich
ore. Diamond drilling has shown that little ore remains.
Nickel-copper sulphides have been found in connection with a large
intrusive of basic igneous rock in the Insizwa Range, _South Africa_.
No payable ore has been found.
Nickel sulphide deposits of unknown importance occur in _India_ and in
_Southwestern China_. Small deposits which were worked when nickel was
scarce occur in _Italy_, _Scotland_, _Germany_ and _Austria_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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