The Economic Aspect of GeologyLeith, C. K. (Charles Kenneth)
Science
The Economic Aspect of Geology
Leith, C. K. (Charles Kenneth)
Geology, Economic
The principal copper minerals may be classified into the sulphide group,
the oxide group, and native copper. Native copper, mined in the Lake
Superior region, is the source of 8 to 10 per cent of the world's copper
supply. The oxide group of minerals--including the copper carbonates,
azurite and malachite; the silicate, chrysocolla; the oxide, cuprite;
the sulphates, chalcanthite and brochantite; and some native copper
associated with these minerals--probably supplies another 5 per cent.
The remaining 85 per cent is derived from the sulphide group. Of the
sulphide group by far the most important mineral is chalcocite (cuprous
sulphide), which supplies the bulk of the values in the majority of the
mining camps of the western hemisphere. Locally, as at Butte, enargite
(copper-arsenic sulphide) is of great value. Other minerals of
considerable importance in some districts are chalcopyrite and bornite
(copper-iron sulphides), tetrahedrite (copper-antimony sulphide), and
covellite (cupric sulphide). Very commonly the copper sulphides are
associated with large quantities of the iron sulphide, pyrite, as well
as with varying amounts of lead and zinc sulphides and gold and silver
minerals.
The principal copper ores originate in the earlier stages of the
metamorphic cycle, in close association with igneous activity.
Katamorphism or weathering, in place, has played an important part in
enriching them. The processes of transportation and sedimentary
deposition, which have done so much toward making valuable iron ore
deposits, have contributed little to the formation of copper ores.
=Copper deposits associated with igneous flows.= The copper ores of the
Lake Superior district, and of a few small deposits in the eastern
United States, contain small percentages of native copper in
pre-Cambrian volcanic flows or in sediments between the flows. The ore
bodies have the form of long sheets parallel to the bedding, the copper
and associated minerals filling amygdaloidal openings and small fissures
in the flows, and replacing conglomeratic sediments which lie between
the flows. The copper was probably deposited by hot solutions related to
the igneous rocks, either issuing from the magmas or deriving heat and
dissolved material from them. Secondary concentration has not been
important. There is practically none of it near the present erosion
surface; but it appears in one part of the district near an older
erosion surface covered by Cambrian sediments, suggesting a different
climatic condition at that time.
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