Depth of Occurrence
Exposed to surface
Mineral
deposits like iron ore, bauxite, chromite, copper, limestone and magnesite are
exposed to the surface and easy
to explore. Although most of the significant exposed ore
deposits, namely, Example Outside
the Sterling Hill Mine are
exposures of the weathered surface of the zinc ore body in the Passaic
Pit. Calamine (zinc silicate) was mined in this oxidized portion of
the ore body. Canon City, USA.
Shallow Depth
Deposits
like base
metals, coal and gypsum are covered by altered
oxidized capping or exist
at shallow depth or under thick overburden of bedrock. The
deposits are Cerro de Maimon
copper-gold deposit at Dominican
Republic, Geochemical prospecting
and ground geophysical survey will be helpful for
discovery of deposits at shallow depth.
Deep-Seated Hidden Deposit
Deep-seated hidden deposits will be the future target of
mineral exploration. The key exploration procedures suitable
for discovery of an
orebody at a depth range of 300-700 m
require clear understanding of regional structure, applications
of high penetrative geophysical methods and
interpretation by
simulation tools to identify, describe and delineate. Exploration for such deposits is expensive and associated with considerable economic risk. The
high costs result from
the necessity of expensive
instrumentation and extensive
drilling at depth. Ex. The hidden poly-metallic
deposits discovered in the past are Neves Corvo copper-zinc-tin, Portugal, at 330-1000
m depth, and
Sindesar
Khurd zinc
lead-silver at 130 m depth, India.
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| Exposed to surface,Shallow depth, Deep-seated hidden deposit |
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