GEO 1111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Ore, Igneous Rock, Native Copper

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Geology
• Course: GEO 1111
• Professor: Robert Jack Cornett

Document Summary

Evidence of mining of flint, chert and obsidian for tools more than 16000 years ago. Most useful metals in the crust are geochemically scarce. Most occur as atomic substitution in more abundant rock-forming minerals. Atoms of the metals such as nickel, colbalt, and copper substitute for more common atoms in rock-forming minerals (such as magnesium and calcium) Most ore minerals of the scarce metals are found as sulphides: a few such as the ore minerals of iron, tin and tungsten are oxides. Ore minerals rarely occur alone: they are mixed with other non-valuable minerals, collectively terms gangue. Source: rock or magma enriched in metals tat can be supplied to the ore-forming system. Transport: melt or fluid that can carry metals from source to a site of deposit. Trap: physical or chemical process that concentrates the metals into an ore deposit. Mineral deposits are found in variety of plate tectonic settings depending on where these processes operate.