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92 PRoCESSESS OF FORMATIoN oF MINERAL DEPOSTTS

of intrusives. Other origins for the Sudbury ores


have been suggested.
Recent geological studies of the layered Duluth
Complex have resutted in a resurgence of explora-
tion activity and.success in discovering minerali-
zation and ore deposits. The Minnamar copper-
nickel deposit is a prime example that occurs in a
relatively uncomplicated southeasterly dipping se-
ries of formations that make-up a portion of the
Complex. The deposit is located 8 Km south of
Babbitt, Ir{innesota. It is localized along the base of
the Gabbro Complex and extends along a 5 Km
length of the gabbro contact and is about 2 km miles
in width.
Mineralization consists of disseminated copper
and nickel extending from the surface downdip to
a depth of 750 meters. Higher grade portions of the
deposit of >0.60 percent copper through a mini-
mum thickness of l5 meters ate the Bathtub deposit
on the west side that cxtends from 365 to 490 meters
in depth and the Tiger Boy deposit that extends
from 425 to 680 meters in depth. The sulfides are
principally cubanite, nonmagnetic pyrrtotitc, chal-
copyrite, and pentlandite. Scmc massive sulfides
are localized at the base of the mineralized intrusive
and also in the underlying hornfels.
Immiscible Liquid Injection. If the sulfide-rich frac-
tion accumulated in the manner described above,
and should be subjected to disturbance before con-
solidation, it might be squirted out toward places of
less pressure, such as sheared or brecciated areas
along the margins of the consolidated mother rock
or in the enclosing rocks. There it will consolidate
to form immiscible liquid injections. Such deposits
give unmistakable evidence of late magmatic age.
They intrude older rocks and enclose brecciated
fragments of foreign rock. They exhibit the intru-
sive relations of dikes. The ore minerals penetrate,
corrode, alter, and even replace the silicates. The
remnants of consolidation produce some hydroth-
ermal alteration of the surrounding silicates. The
deposits are irregular or dikelike in form. If the
residual fraction is rich in volatiles, the resulting
deposits might display transitions into hydrother-
mal types.
Flguro 5{ Generalized diagram ot'fiiinra
type intrusion. Black ditferentiated bssal zone
carrying nickelcopper sulphides.
(ArEr D. L
Scholtz. Geol. Soc. South Africa, 1936).
Examples of this class of deposit are thc Vlack-
fontein mine of South Africa and probably somc of
the Norway nickel deposits.
ASSOCTATION OF ROCKS AND MIT{ERAL
PRODUCTS
Definte associations exist between specific mag-
matic ores and certain kinds of rocks. Platinum
occurs only with mafic to ultramafic rock, nrch as
the varieties of norite, peridotite, or their aitcration
products. Chromite, with rare exceptions is found
only in peridotite, anorthosite, and similar mafic
rocks. Titaniferous magnetite and ilmenitc are
mothered by gabbro and anorthosite, and magrnatic
magnetite deposits occur with syenitc. Nickc[cop
per deposits are associated universally with norite,
and magmatic corundum with nepheline scycaitc.
Diamonds occur in comrnercial quantitics only in
kimberlite, a variety of peridotite. Pegmatitc min-
erals such as beryl, cassiterite, lepidolitc, schcclitc,
and niobium-bearing minerals occur chicf,y with
granitic rocks. It is thus seen that the decpscated
mafic rocks are the associates of most of the im-
portant magmatic mineral deposits, which indicates
a genetic relationship, probably during thc carly
magmatic history of mafic rocks.
Selected Readings on Magmatic Concentratioa
Bushveld igneous complex-Magmatic ore dcposits.
1969. J. Willemse. Econ. Geol. Mono., no.4, p. t-
22. Chronite, ntagnetite, and platinum dcposits.
Also vanadiferous magnetite.r, p. 187-208.
Occurrence and characteristics of chromite dcpsits-
Eastern Bushveld complex, 1969. Eugenc N. Cam'
eron and A. Desborough. Econ. Geol. Moao., no.
4, p. 23-40; also by E. N. Cameron, Econ- Geol.,
r.54 p.l15l-1213, 1959. Chrontite deposits af this
classical araa.
Stillwater, I{ontana, chromite deposits. 1969. Edward
Sampson. Econ. Geol. Mono.. no.4p.72-75.
Chromite seams--Great Dyke, Rhodesia. 1969. R- Bi.
cham. Econ. Geol. Mono., no. 4, p. 95-lll. Mag-
matic concenlration in separale intrusions-
Gravity Differentiation and llagmatic Podiform Chrom-
ite Deposits. 1969. T. P. Thayer. Ecoa. Geol.

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