Chapter Five

Sedimentary Hosted
Metallic Ore Deposits
 5. Sedimentary Hosted
Metallic Ore Deposits
Sedimentary processes
 External processes that take place in depositional
environments

Geological setting
I. Continental (on a landmass)
II. Near shore/shallow water (a transition between
continental and ocean)
III. Deep marine water
Principal agents are:
 Meteoric water
 Atmospheric oxygen (air)
 Seawater
 Gravity
 Wind and ice etc
Sedimentary cycle is made up of
four main processes
1. Weathering
2. Transportation
3. Deposition and
These are effective in concentrating metal ores
4. Digenesis (plays role in preserving the ores ) 3
4
 In general, weathering processes acting upon rocks
contribute to the overall mineral resource production
in five ways.

(1) Weathering may produce new minerals in situ that

are more useful than their progenitor (predecessor)
minerals, such as bauxites or kaolinite produced by
the hydrolysis of feldspars.

 Examples include bauxite and kaolinite deposits

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(2)Weathering may trigger the redistribution of valuable
elements such as copper and nickel in a family of
processes called supergene enrichment.

(3) Fine detritus and chemical complexes may be

released by weathering to become involved as
precipitates in chemical sedimentation or the
formation of conventional sediments.

(4) Weathering may release resistant minerals from hard

rocks such as granite into softer or otherwise more
workable soil-like aggregates at and near the surface.

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 One excellent example is the "freeing" of diamonds
from hard, un weathered kimberlite "blue ground"
into friable, easily disaggregated weathered
kimberlite "yellow ground," which contained the
most easy recovered diamonds at Kimberley, South
Africa, in the U.S.S.R, and in Arkansas, USA.

(5) Weathering releases resistant minerals like gold,

diamonds, and cassiterite to be winnowed (picked
over) from their weathered matrix, transported, and
concentrated by sedimentary processes into deposits
called placers

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 Sedimentary Rocks
There are two types of sedimentary rocks, based on their
textures

1. Clastic (also called “ Detrital” )

Form from deposition of solid grains; classified based on
grain size: conglomerate, sandstone, and shale

2. Non clastic rocks (Chemical and organic)

Chemical sedimentary rocks form from minerals
precipitating out of water and usually involves some sort
of chemical reaction; classified based on mineral content:
limestone, bituminous coal are examples.
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1. Ore hosted by Clastic sediments

Clastic sediments
 Are sediment of sedimentary rocks
 Products of weathering at or near the earth’s surface
 Includes gravel, conglomerate and breccias,
sandstone, mud (silt and clay, siltstone and shale).

Clastic (Detrital) rock

 Made of broken fragments of previously existing
rocks
 Particles are cemented together by other minerals
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 a) Placer deposits
 A deposit of sand, gravel, containing valuable
minerals in particles, especially by the side of a river,
or in the bed of a mountain stream

 Surfacial mineral deposits formed by mechanical

concentration of heavy mineral particles such as gold
from weathered debris, commonly by:
 Alluvial, but also by
 Marine,
 Aeolian,
 Lacustrine, or
 Glacial agents, 10
 Resistate minerals, those that are chemically
stable or metastable in the weathered zone of the
Earth's surface and are not decomposed by weathering
processes as the surrounding rocks are dissolved or
disintegrated. Then they:

 Either remain in the soil or

 Are carried away by rain, streams, waves, or wind.

 The lighter particles of some resistates are readily

moved and become dispersed: brittle ones break easily
are dispersed.

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 But heavy, stable, durable minerals left as residual
particles be washed into drainages. In streams, they
are separated from finer grained, hydraulically lighter
materials.

 The heavy minerals may then be concentrated into the

sands and gravels of streams and beaches.

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 The most common and abundant placer minerals are
the native metals, especially gold and the platinum
group, and many of the heavy "inert" oxides,
silicates, and other phases such as cassiterite (SnO 2),
chromite (FeO. Cr2O3), Wolframite (Fe, Mn)WO4
Tungsten ore], magnetite (FeO. Fe2O3), zircon, etc.

 Since sulphides readily break up and decompose in

modern oxygenated environments, they seldom
accumulate in placers.

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 Steps for making a placer
1. Weathering removes mineral
particles from country rocks

2. Kinetic energy of high velocity stream

transports mineral particles.

3. Where kinetic energy drops suddenly,

high density particles stop, lower density
particles continue

 Placer deposits have formed throughout

geologic time, but most exploited ones
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The simplest technique to extract gold from placer ore is
panning
Panning is same principle as a placer, but in a pan

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1. Eluvial Placer Deposits
 Found in the immediate vicinity of primary deposits
 Formed from only slightly drifted (move) residues .
E.g. The platinum deposits of the Urals, southern Russia .

The formation of residual (left)

and eluvial (right) placer deposit
by the weathering of cassiterite
veins
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 2. Fluvial (alluvial) Placers Deposits

 Occur in river beds

 The heavy minerals move to the bottom load of the

channel and are the first to drop out of suspension

 Sorts the detrital grains by their specific gravity

(winnowing).

 The sorting and composition of a sediment is controlled

by both the density and the size of the particles
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Origin of placer
deposits, which
are concentrations
of heavy clastic
grains in stream,
lake or ocean
sediments. As
shown here,
minerals liberated
from quartz veins
by weathering and
erosion are carried
downstream and
deposited where
the water slows 18
3. Beach placers deposits
 Occur at different topographical levels due to Pleistocene
sea-level changes (wave/currents or tides action)
 Quartz sand typically mined from ancient beaches, sand
.
bars, etc

Fig. Wave action concentrates sand on a beach 19

Also occur adjacent to the headlands due to long shore
drift
E.g. cassiterite, diamond, gold, ilmenite, magnetite,
monazite (REE), rutile, and zircon

Fig. Sketch section to illustrate some sites of beach

placer deposits. Placer shown by heavy stipple 20
 b. Sediment hosted Cu (red bed Cu, (Co,
Pb, Zn)) (Cu belt type)

 Host include organic rich calcareous shale, siltstones,

clay stones and sandstones.
 Typical of low altitude, arid to semi-arid environment.

Deposits
 Concordant, and disseminated sulfides

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Ore minerals
 Sphalerite (ZnS), galena (PbS), chalcocite (Cu 2S),
bornite (Cu5FeS4), chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), pyrite
(FeS2)

Genesis
 Hydrothermal solutions (brines) circulate along faults
and leach Cu and other metals and deposit them in
reduced environment.
 Bacterial involvement in providing S -2 is suspected.

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 c) Sandstone hosted U (V, Mo)
 Continental sediments laid down under arid conditions
Ore minerals
 Pitchblende (U3O8).
Genesis
 U was oxidized and remobilized from a granitic sources
and deposited in a reducing environment.
 Deposition takes place at the redox boundary.
 The processes is believed to take place during or just
after the onset of diagenesis.

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 Steps for Uranium deposits
 Soluble U6+ is produced during the weathering of
igneous rocks.

 U6+ was transported by groundwater until it

encounters reducing conditions. It is reduced to U 4+
and precipitates as uranium oxide.

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d) Black carbonaceous shale hosted copper deposits

 Essentially syngenetic/diagenetic ores found in shallow

marine sediments associated with major transgressions
 Anoxic conditions and bacterial reduction of sea water
sulphate were important controls on mineralization
 Ores have both lateral and vertical mineralogical
zonation
 Shale hosted massive sulfides. e.g. Zambian Copper
Belt, White pine copper belt USA, Kupferschiefer in
Germany and Poland

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e) Sedimentary exhalative lead Zinc (Copper) deposits

 Form in a sedimentary basin from the submarine venting

of hydrothermal fluids.
Host Rocks
 Host rocks range from organic-rich shales and siltstones
to carbonates.
Ore mineralogy
 Occurs primarily as sphalerite and galena
 The ore minerals commonly occur parallel to bedding
and they alternate with beds of the host rock.
 Vary from mm to several tens of cm thickness with
bedding contacts
E.g. Red sea deposit. 26
2. Ore deposits hosted by Chemical
sediments
 Causes ore concentrations through chemical
breakdown of the rocks.

 Ore deposits formed by this processes are:

 Sedimentary precipitates
 Secondary enrichment deposits
 Residual deposits

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Chemical sedimentary rocks
Carbonates
i. Bioclastic limestones (e.g. chalk, coquina)
ii. Inorganic limestones (e.g. oolitic limestone, tufa
and travertine )
iii. Evaporites (e.g. rock salt NaCl, anhydrite CaSO4,
and rock gypsum CaSO4. H2O)

Limestone hosts
 Very common host for base metal sulfide deposits
 Due to their solubility and reactivity they become
favourable horizons for mineralisation

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 a. Sedimentary iron deposits
Banded Iron Formations
 Chemically precipitated sedimentary rocks that consist
of inter layered iron-rich beds
 Bedded iron-rich (≥ 15% Fe)
There are two main types of banded iron formation
1)The Lake Superior type
 Sedimentary in origin
 Deposited on a stable continental platform within a
relatively shallow water to transitional deep-basin
environment.

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 Much larger and supplies most of the world’s iron.
 Iron-rich beds that are not highly metamorphosed or
altered by weathering and supergene processes are
referred to as taconite.
 The more metamorphosed equivalents are called
metataconite or itabirite.

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2) The Algoma-type
 Considered to be of hydrothermal hot spring origin.
 Associated with volcanic successions that represent
divergent and subduction zone volcanism.
 Formed in tectonically unstable marine
environments (“greenstone belts”).
 Dominantly in Archean to Proterozoic volcanic arcs
and spreading centers (Greenstone Belts).

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32
 Siderite Deposits (FeCO3)

 Siderite comes from a Greek word σίδηρος sideros,

“iron”
 Sedimentary beds containing siderite, commonly known
as black-band ores, are widely distributed throughout
the world. Efforts to mine these deposits have generally
been unsuccessful because of low grade.
 But sedimentary siderite has been worked successfully
in Germany and the British Isles and in Texas.

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 Sedimentary manganese
deposits

 Manganese behaves chemically much as iron

behaves- the two elements can accumulate in similar
environments and under similar conditions.

 Under oxidizing conditions, pyrolusite (MnO 2) or

some other form of MnO2 would be expected to form,
and in strongly reducing environments, alabandite
(MnS) or manganosite (MnO) should form.
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 Both oxides and carbonates of manganese are
widely distributed throughout the world.

 The carbonates are generally complex, containing

variable amounts of calcium, magnesium, and
iron along with the manganese.

 Many sedimentary manganese oxide deposits are

nearly pure, but other perhaps volcanogenic ones
contain minor amounts of cobalt, nickel, tungsten,
copper, and barium.

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 3. Ore deposits hosted by carbonates

Mississippi valley type (MVT) lead-

zinc deposits.
 Form during the evolution of a sedimentary basin.
 Basically very low temperature (< 250 0c).
 The ores are stratabound and largely confined to
carbonate beds.
 Cambrian-Carboniferous and Traissic to Cretaceous are
where more than 95% of the deposits occur.

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 Host Rocks

 Host rocks are limestone and dolostone with most

deposits found in dolostone. It is believed this
preference for dolostone is due to the fact it is more
permeable than limestone.

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 Ore minerals occur as veins in limestone that overlie a
sandstone.

 Ores include: lead as PbS, zinc as ZnS, copper as

CuFeS2, and flourine as CaF2.

 Very saline brines containing sulfate ions (SO 42-).

These brines transported the metals in solution through
the sandstone.

 The sulfate was reduced to S2-, perhaps by reaction

with methane, and the minerals then precipitated out.

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Lead-Zinc Deposits of the World
(Kesler, 1994)

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END

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 Quiz()
1) List two probable host rocks for the MVT lead zinc ore
deposits. 2pts

2) What are black band ores? 1pt

3) Discriminate between the yellow ground and blue grounds

of kimberlites pipes.3pts

4) Briefly explain the Eluvial and fluvial placer deposits.

2pts

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