APSC 151 Final Questions And
Answers
Ore
✓✓✓✓~ Metallic minerals that can be mined at a profit, rock containing metal
Types of ore
✓✓✓✓~ Metallic and nonmetallic resources
Natural aggregate
✓✓✓✓~ Crushed stone, sand, and gravel
Aggregate comes from...
✓✓✓✓~ Glacial outwash deposits in Canada
Aggregate used...
✓✓✓✓~ To make concrete and asphalt
,Stone used...
✓✓✓✓~ For facings, walkways, and countertops
Other ore resources
✓✓✓✓~ Diamond, gold, copper, zinc, potash, coal, uranium
Mineral exploration engineering
✓✓✓✓~ Research, geophysics, field mapping, exploration drilling, geochemical sampling,
structural modelling, 3D orebody estimation, confirmation drilling
Exploration geophysics
✓✓✓✓~ Using seismics, electrical methods, electromagnetism, radiation, radar, micro-
gravity, and 3D visualization
Geochemistry
✓✓✓✓~ Looking for indicator minerals in soil and rock and using elemental isotopes to
examine history
Reserve modelling
,✓✓✓✓~ Integrates regional geology, drilling data, geochemistry, geophysics to estimate
total viable reserve
Amount of core to get to feasibility stage
✓✓✓✓~ 75-150 km
Types of deposits
✓✓✓✓~ Magmatic, porphyry, volcanic, hydrothermal, sedimentary, placer
Magmatic deposits
✓✓✓✓~ Some metals enriched and concentrated during magma cooling, heavy minerals
crystallize early and concentrate at bottom of magma chamber (e.g. chromite, iron,
magnetite)
Porphyry orebodies
✓✓✓✓~ Magmatic and hydrothermal (hot water) - form as liquid and gas volatiles change
chemical state and change saturation limit for sulphide minerals
Copper porphyry
, ✓✓✓✓~ Cyclical magmatic intrusion with alteration by volcanic waters
Volcanic deposits
✓✓✓✓~ Violent kimberlite eruptions bringing diamonds from upper mantle to surface
Epithermal volcanic deposits
✓✓✓✓~ Near surface deposits precipitated from hot volcanic waters
What causes different ore types?
✓✓✓✓~ Interaction with temperature, pressure, volatile gases, and solution as magma rises
Hydrothermal deposits associated with igneous activity
✓✓✓✓~ Hot groundwater dissolves metals in the presence of salts and hydrothermal fluids
move along fractures, cool, and deposit them as orebodies
Black smokers - type of hydrothermal deposit
✓✓✓✓~ Seawater gushes from seafloor near spreading centres and precipitates
volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits - deformed by tectonics
