Geologic Features
The principal copper minerals may be classified into the sulphide group, the oxide group, and native copper. Native copper, mined in the Lake Superior region, is the source of 8 to 10 per cent of the world's copper supply. The oxide group of minerals—including the copper carbonates, azurite and malachite; the silicate, chrysocolla; the oxide, cuprite; the sulphates, chalcanthite and brochantite; and some native copper associated with these minerals—probably supplies another 5 per cent. The remaining 85 per cent is derived from the sulphide group. Of the sulphide group by far the most important mineral is chalcocite (cuprous sulphide), which supplies the bulk of the values in the majority of the mining camps of the western hemisphere. Locally, as at Butte, enargite (copper-arsenic sulphide) is of great value. Other minerals of considerable importance in some districts are chalcopyrite and bornite (copper-iron sulphides), tetrahedrite (copper-antimony sulphide), and covellite (cupric sulphide). Very commonly the copper sulphides are associated with large quantities of the iron sulphide, pyrite, as well as with varying amounts of lead and zinc sulphides and gold and silver minerals.
The principal copper ores originate in the earlier stages of the metamorphic cycle, in close association with igneous activity. Katamorphism or weathering, in place, has played an important part in enriching them. The processes of transportation and sedimentary deposition, which have done so much toward making valuable iron ore deposits, have contributed little to the formation of copper ores.
Copper deposits associated with igneous flows. The copper ores of the Lake Superior district, and of a few small deposits in the eastern United States, contain small percentages of native copper in pre-Cambrian volcanic flows or in sediments between the flows. The ore bodies have the form of long sheets parallel to the bedding, the copper and associated minerals filling amygdaloidal openings and small fissures in the flows, and replacing conglomeratic sediments which lie between the flows. The copper was probably deposited by hot solutions related to the igneous rocks, either issuing from the magmas or deriving heat and dissolved material from them. Secondary concentration has not been important. There is practically none of it near the present erosion surface; but it appears in one part of the district near an older erosion surface covered by Cambrian sediments, suggesting a different climatic condition at that time.
The Kennecott copper deposits of Alaska have a number of resemblances to the Lake Superior copper deposits, suggesting similarity in origin. The Kennecott deposits occur exclusively in limestone, which rests conformably on a tilted surface of igneous flows ("greenstones") not unlike those of Lake Superior. The flows carry native copper and copper sulphides in minutely disseminated form and in amygdules, but apparently not in quantities sufficiently concentrated to mine. The flows are supposed to be the original source of the copper now in the limestone. The primary copper mineral in the limestone is chalcocite, in exceptionally rich and solid masses, showing no evidence of having replaced earlier sulphides. It is regarded as a product of primary deposition, under the influence of hot solutions related in some way to the igneous flows; but whether the solutions were magmatic, originating in the lavas or below, or whether they were meteoric waters rendered hot by contact with the extrusives, and thereby made effective in leaching copper from them, is not clear. The oxidation of the Kennecott copper ores is not extensive. It presents an interesting feature, in that since glacial time the ground has been frozen and the moisture is now present in the form of ice. The oxidation clearly took place before glacial time. Abundant fragments of both the oxide and the sulphide ores are mined from the lateral moraine of a nearby glacier. This is a good illustration of the cyclic nature of secondary concentration which is coming to be recognized in so many camps.
The Boleo copper deposits of Lower California occur in volcanic tuffs and associated conglomerates of Tertiary age. They have certain peculiar mineralogic associations—the ores containing large quantities of all the common copper oxide minerals, and a number of rare oxide minerals of copper, lead, silver, and cobalt, together with gypsum, sulphur, and much iron and manganese oxide. The copper oxides and carbonates are in places gathered into rounded concretions called "boleos" (balls). Sulphides are present in the lowest beds and may represent the form in which the copper was originally deposited. The copper-bearing beds have been much silicified, and it has been suggested that mineralization was accomplished by hot-spring waters, probably of igneous origin. These deposits have a few marked similarities to the Lake Superior copper ores.
Copper veins in igneous rocks. A second group of copper ores in igneous rocks is made up of deposits in distinct fissure veins and as replacements along such veins. The chief deposits of this type are at Butte, Montana—which is, from the standpoint of both past and present production, the greatest single copper district in the world. Here a large batholith of Tertiary granite was intruded by porphyry dikes; and faulting, accompanying and following the intrusions of the dikes, developed numerous fissures. The fissures were mineralized with copper sulphides and arsenides, iron sulphides, and locally with zinc sulphide and manganese carbonate,—all in a matrix of quartz. At the same time the wall rocks were extensively mineralized and altered; the fissure veins grade off into the wall rock, and in fact the larger part of the ore is simply altered granite with disseminated sulphides. The solutions which deposited the ores are inferred to have been hot from the nature of the wall-rock alterations, from the presence of hot-water minerals like fluorite, cassiterite, and others, and from the general association of the ores in time and place with the porphyry intrusions. The solutions are believed to have originated from the porphyry and possibly from other intrusives.
In the Butte district, and in the great majority of copper sulphide vein ores throughout the world, secondary concentration by surface waters has played a considerable part in developing ores of commercial value. Near the surface the copper is leached out and carried down by waters containing various solvents, particularly sulphuric acid from the oxidation of pyrite. A leached zone is formed containing the ordinary products of rock weathering,—rusty quartz and clay, sometimes black with manganese oxides. A small part of the copper remains in this zone as oxides, carbonates, and silicates. Below the oxidized and leached zone there is evidence of deposition of a large amount of secondary copper sulphide in the form of chalcocite. This is supposed to have been formed by the leaching of copper from above as soluble copper sulphate, and its precipitation below by iron and other sulphide minerals which the solutions meet on their downward course—a reaction which has been demonstrated experimentally. It was formerly supposed that most of the chalcocite was of this origin; but as chalcocite is found in important amounts with enargite and chalcopyrite to great depths (now 3,500 feet), where the veins are still rich and strong, it begins to appear that much of the chalcocite is of primary origin.
The fissures along which the Butte ores occur are in three main sets, which in order of age strike roughly east-west, northwest-southeast, and northeast-southwest. Two-thirds of the ore is in the first set, about 30 per cent in the second, and the remainder in the third. The mineralization of the several vein systems cannot be discriminated, and it is thought that it was accomplished as a more or less continuous and progressive process. There is some evidence, also, that the fracturing in the several fracture systems was likewise a nearly continuous progressive process, contemporaneous with the ore deposition, and perhaps developing under a single great shear which caused more or less simultaneous and overlapping systems of fractures in the various directions.
"Porphyry coppers." Another type of copper deposits in igneous rocks is the disseminated or "porphyry" deposits. The term "porphyry" as commonly used includes true porphyries, monzonites, granites, and other igneous rocks. Ores of this type are represented by the great deposits of Bingham, Utah; Ray, Miami, and the New Cornelia mine of Arizona; Ely, Nevada; Santa Rita, New Mexico; Cananea, Sonora, Mexico; northern Chile; and many other districts of importance. They form the greatest known reserves of copper ore. These deposits contain copper minerals, usually in the marginal portions of acid porphyries, in many irregular, closely spaced veins, and in minute seams and spots disseminated through the mass of the rock. In the Ray and Miami and other districts the mineralization has spread largely through adjacent schists, but these deposits are included with the porphyry copper deposits in commercial parlance. The porphyry deposits are of an undulating blanket form of considerable areal extent and shallow depth. At the surface is a leached and weathered zone, often containing more or less of the oxides, carbonates, and silicates of copper, ranging in thickness up to 1,000 feet, but averaging 200 feet or less. Below this is a zone carrying copper in the form of chalcopyrite, enriched by chalcocite deposition from above, ranging in thickness up to 400 feet. The ore in this zone varies from one-half of 1 per cent to 6 per cent of copper and ordinarily averages between 1 and 2 per cent. The use of ore of this grade is made possible by the large quantities and by the cheap and efficient mining and metallurgical practices. The ore body grades below into a zone characterized by lean chalcopyrite, which is supposed to represent original or primary deposition from hot waters associated with the porphyry intrusion. This primary ore, or protore, was clearly formed after the solidification of the igneous rocks, though soon after, by solutions from igneous sources which followed fractured and shattered zones.
Copper in limestone near igneous contacts. Another great group of copper deposits occurs as replacements of limestone adjacent to porphyry or granitic intrusives. This type is illustrated by some of the deposits at Bingham, Utah, and at Bisbee, Arizona. The primary deposition was of chalcopyrite and other copper sulphides, together with garnet, diopside, and other minerals known to have required high temperature in their formation. The ore fills fissures and replaces extensive masses of the limestone. It is likely to show a fairly sharp contact on the side toward the intrusive, and to grade off into the country rock on the other side with numerous embayments and irregularities. These deposits have been enriched by weathering in the same manner as indicated above for the porphyry coppers, but to highly varying degrees. In the Bisbee deposits large values were found in the weathered zone, and secondary sulphide enrichment below this zone is also important. In the Bingham camp, on the other hand, the weathered zone is insignificant and most of the ore beneath is primary. The weathering of the silicated limestone gangue results in great masses of clay which are characteristic features of the oxide zones of these deposits.
Copper deposits in schists. Other copper deposits, as at Jerome, Arizona, in the Foothill and Shasta County districts of California, at Ducktown, Tennessee, etc., are irregular lenticular bodies in schists and other rocks, but all show relationship to igneous rocks. The Rio Tinto ores of Spain and Portugal, which belong in this group, have been referred to on page 108.
In the Jerome or Verde district of central Arizona, folded pre-Cambrian greenstones and sediments were invaded by masses of quartz-porphyry, and after further deformation, rendering many of the rocks schistose, were intruded by an augite-diorite. Contact metamorphism along both the quartz-porphyry and the diorite contacts was practically lacking. The ore bodies were formed as irregular pipe-like replacements of the schists, being localized in one case by a steeply pitching inverted trough of impervious diorite, and in other cases by shear zones which favored vigorous circulation. A later series of small diorite or andesite dikes cut the ore bodies. The primary ores consist of pyrite, chalcopyrite, and other sulphides, with large amounts of jaspery quartz and some calcite and dolomite. They were clearly formed by replacement of the schists particle by particle, as shown by the frequent preservation of the schist structure in a banding of the sulphide minerals, the residual shreds of unreplaced schist material in the ores, and the usual gradual transition from unreplaced schists to those completely replaced by massive sulphides. The localization of the most important mineralization in an inverted trough is good evidence that the solutions came from below, and the nature of the mineral associations suggests an origin through the work of hot waters associated with igneous intrusives. The diorite, being most closely related in time and space with the ore bodies, seems the most logical source of the ore materials.
Secondary concentration of the Jerome ores has proceeded along the general lines previously outlined (pp. 46-50, 202). Here again the evidence is clear that the ores were concentrated in an earlier period, in this case in pre-Cambrian times, probably during the long interval required for the base-leveling of the pre-Cambrian mountains. Since Cambrian times the deposits have been for the most part buried by later sediments. Some of the deposits are still protected by this overlying blanket and mining has not yet reached the zone of altogether primary sulphides. Others have been faulted up and again exposed by erosion; but since being uncovered, steep slopes and rapid erosion have apparently favored the scattering of the copper rather than its concentration and enrichment. In the United Verde Mine, oxidizing conditions at present prevail to the bottom of the chalcocite zone.
The very large reserves of the Katanga copper belt of the Belgian Congo are in the form of tabular masses in schistose and highly metamorphosed Paleozoic sediments. The ore bodies are roughly parallel to the bedding, but in instances follow the schistosity which cuts across the bedding. They consist dominantly of the oxide minerals, though in several ore bodies sulphides have been shown by diamond-drilling. The ores have a high content of cobalt and also carry precious metals. The origin of the deposits is not known, but has been ascribed to granitic masses intrusive into the schists.
Sedimentary copper deposits. In the later phases of the metamorphic cycle, the agencies of transportation (in solution) and sedimentary deposition have resulted in some low-grade deposits of copper sulphides in sedimentary rocks. Deposits of this type are found in the Rocky Mountain region, where they are referred to as the "Red Beds" coppers, but are of no commercial importance. Similar deposits in Germany, the Mansfield copper-bearing shales, have been worked for some time, and during the war were Germany's main source of copper. On Keweenaw Point, Michigan, deposits of native copper formed in this manner in the "Nonesuch" beds have been worked on a commercial scale. Other copper ores on Keweenaw Point are replacements of conglomerate beds between igneous flows, and are of a different origin already described (p. 200).
While much of the copper of sedimentary beds gives evidence that it was deposited from solution in cracks and as replacements of the wall rocks, often through the agency of abundant organic material in the beds, and while also comparatively little of this copper can be identified as having been deposited in detrital flakes or fragments along with the other mineral fragments, there is, nevertheless, considerable evidence that some of these deposits were formed essentially during the sedimentation of the enclosing beds and as incidents to this process. Such evidence consists of a close limitation of the copper to certain beds, its wide and uniform distribution within these beds, its absence in similar beds near at hand, the absence of evidence of feeding and escape channels of the kind which would be necessary in case the solutions were introduced long afterward, and often a minute participation of the copper minerals in the minor structures of bedding, false-bedding, and ripple-marks, which would be difficult to explain as due to secondary concentration.
The Corocoro copper deposits of Bolivia occur in beds of sandstone with no igneous rocks in the vicinity. However, they are all closely associated with a fault plane, igneous rocks occur at distances of a few miles, and the general mineralization is coextensive with the belt of igneous rocks; the deposits are therefore ascribed to a magmatic source rather than to sedimentary processes. Toward the surface the copper is in part in the form of sulphides, somewhat altered to oxide minerals, and farther down it is entirely native copper, associated with gypsum. This is the only district outside of Lake Superior where native copper has been mined on an important scale.
General comments. In general, the commercially prominent copper deposits show a close relationship to igneous rocks in place, time, and origin. Seldom do the ores extend more than 1,000 feet away from the igneous rock.
The common downward order in sulphide deposits is: first, a weathered zone, originally formed mainly above the water table, consisting above of a leached portion and below of oxides and carbonates of copper in a gangue of quartz or clay; second, a zone of secondary sulphide enrichment, characterized by chalcocite coatings, chalcopyrite, and pyrite, with a gangue of quartz and igneous rock or limestone; and third, a zone of primary deposition with similar gangue, characterized by chalcopyrite, and at Butte by enargite and chalcocite. The oxide zone as a whole may be rich or lean in values, depending on the nature of the associated gangue material and country rock. When these are more soluble than the copper—as is commonly the case in limestone—the copper may be residually concentrated, notwithstanding the fact that much copper originally present has been carried off in solution. When the associated gangue and country rock are less soluble than the copper—as is common with quartz and igneous rocks—the oxide zone is likely to be depleted of values.
The zones formed by weathering and secondary enrichment are extremely irregular, both in distribution and depth, in any one deposit, and they overlap and grade into one another in a very complex fashion. In many places the primary zone is too lean to be mined to commercial advantage; but in other places, as at Butte, and in the limestone deposits of Bingham, the primary ores are of considerable importance.
When evidence of secondary sulphide enrichment was first recognized there was a tendency to magnify its effectiveness, and to assume that in most cases the values were due to this process; that the primary zones would be found to be valueless. In recent years the emphasis is being somewhat changed because of the recognizing in many camps of rich primary zones. While some chalcocite is clearly the result of secondary enrichment from above, other chalcocite seems to have been related closely to the primary deposition. The quantitative discrimination of the two is a matter of great difficulty.
It has come to be recognized that the zonal arrangement caused by enrichment from the surface has been imposed usually on a zonal arrangement caused by the primary hot solutions and not related to the surface but to the source of the solutions. In some districts, as illustrated by Butte and Bingham, the copper-bearing minerals seem to have been deposited nearest the igneous source, while the lead, zinc, gold, and silver minerals have been deposited farther away,—suggesting the cooling of the solutions with increasing distance from the igneous source. The further investigation of this primary zonal arrangement promises interesting results with a practical bearing on exploration and development.
One of the newer features of the investigation of copper deposits has been the recognition of the cyclic nature of the secondary concentration. This process has been related not only to the present erosion surface, but to older surfaces now partly buried under later rocks. Ransome's[33] summary of conditions at the Ray-Miami camp has a somewhat general application.
Supergene enrichment has generally been treated as a continuously progressive process. There is considerable probability, however, that it is essentially cyclic, although the cyclic character may not be patent in all deposits. A full development of the cycle can take place only under a certain equilibrium of a number of factors, including climate, erosion, topography, and character of rock. The essential fact appears to be that as enrichment progresses and chalcocite increases the process of enrichment becomes slower in action, and erosion may, in some circumstances, overtake it. With the removal of some of the protecting zone of chalcocite the protore is again exposed to oxidation and a second cycle of enrichment begins.
Although much of the enriched ore is now below ground-water level, it probably was once above that level, and enrichment is believed to have taken place mainly in the zone of rock above any general water table.
Where the old erosion surface roughly coincides with the present erosion surface, the deposits follow more or less the topography. Where the old erosion surface pitches below later sediments, the ores pitch with it, and therefore do not follow the present topography. The recognition of the cyclic nature of secondary concentration is obviously of great significance in exploration and development.
Although a vast amount of study has been devoted to the origin and enrichment of copper deposits, and although the general conditions and processes are pretty well understood, the results thus far have been largely qualitative rather than quantitative.
LEAD ORES
Economic Features
The most prominent uses of lead are in the manufacture of alloys, such as type-metal, bearing metal, shot, solder, and casting metal; as the oxide, red lead, and the basic carbonate, white lead, in paints; for lead pipe, cable coverings, and containers of acid active material; and in lead compounds for various chemical and medical uses. Of the lead consumed in the United States before the war about 38 per cent was utilized in pigments, 30 per cent in alloys other than shot, 15 per cent in pipe, 10 per cent in shot, and 7 per cent in all other uses. During the war much larger quantities were used in munitions, such as shot and shrapnel.
The lead content of commercial ores varies widely. It ranges from as low as .25 per cent in the Joplin district of Missouri, to about 15 per cent in the Broken Hill deposits of Australia, and over 20 per cent in the Bawdwin mines of Burma. In the Cœur d'Alene district of Idaho and the southeastern district of Missouri, the two greatest lead producers in the United States, the average grades are about 10 per cent and about 3-½ per cent respectively. The grade of ore which may be profitably worked depends not only upon the economic factors,—such as nearness to consuming centers, and the price of lead,—but also upon the amenability of the ore to concentration, the content of other valuable metals, and the fact that lead is very useful in smelting as a collector of gold and silver.
Most lead ores contain more or less zinc, and lead is obtained as a by-product of most zinc ores. Argentiferous lead ores form one of the principal sources of silver, and also yield some gold. Lead and copper are produced together from certain ores. Thus the separation of many ores into hard and fast classes, as lead, or zinc, or copper, or silver, or gold ores, cannot be made; in some of the mineral resource reports of the United States Geological Survey the statistics of these five metals are published together.
The main sources of lead ore, named in order of their importance, are the United States, Australia, Spain, Germany, and Mexico, which account for over 80 per cent of the world's production. Most of the countries of Europe outside of Spain and Germany produce small amounts of lead, but are largely dependent on imports. Spain exports argentiferous lead and pig lead mainly to England and France, with minor quantities to other countries of Europe and to Argentina. Before the war Germany, which was the largest European consumer, utilized all its own production of lead ores and imported an additional 10 per cent of the world's ores for smelting, as well as considerable amounts of pig lead. Its principal deposits were those of Silesia; under the Peace Treaty they may possibly be lost to Poland, leaving German smelters largely dependent on imports. Australia before the war normally shipped lead concentrates and pig lead to England and also to Belgium, Germany, and Japan. England, the second largest European consumer, before the war had insufficient smelting capacity within the British Empire and was partly dependent on foreign-smelted lead. During the war, however, England contracted for the entire Australian output, and enlarged its smelting capacity accordingly. This may mean permanent loss to Belgium, which had depended mainly on the Australian ores for its smelting industry before the war.
In North Africa there is a small but steady production of lead, most of which goes to France. Recent developments in Burma have shown large reserves of high-grade lead-zinc-silver-copper ores, and this region may be expected to become an important producer. There are also large reserves of lead in the Altai Mountains of southwestern Siberia and in the Andes Mountains of South America.
England, through control of Australian and Burman lead mines and smelters, domestic smelting facilities, and some financial control in Spain, Mexico, and elsewhere, and France, through financial control of Spanish and North African mines and Spanish, Belgian, and domestic smelters, have adequate supplies of lead.
The United States produces about a third of the world's lead and twice as much as any other country. Normally the domestic production is almost entirely consumed in this country. Mexico sends large quantities of bullion and ore to the United States to be smelted and refined in bond. Mexican lead refined and exported by the United States equals in amount one-sixth of the domestic production. Small quantities of ore or bullion from Canada, Africa, and South America are also brought into the United States for treatment.
Through domestic production, smelting facilities for Mexican ore, and commercial ownership in Mexico and elsewhere, the United States controls over 45 per cent of the world's lead production. Before the war Germany, through the "Lead Convention" or International Sales Association, and through smelting and selling contracts with large producing mines, practically controlled the European lead market as well as exports from Mexico and the United States and from Australia. During the war German foreign influence was practically destroyed.
In the United States about a third of the production of lead comes from southeastern Missouri and about a fourth from the Cœur d'Alene district of Idaho. The five states, Missouri, Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Oklahoma, produce about nine-tenths of the country's total output. Reserves of lead ore are not large in proportion to demand, contrasting in this regard with zinc ore.