The Economic Aspect of Geology Part 23

It is of interest to note that in many places in the limestones of Missouri and Virginia, and elsewhere in the Paleozoic rocks, there are sinks of limonite and clay near the surface, which are likewise believed to have originated through downward movement of waters deriving their mineral contents from the erosion and stripping of overlying sediments.

Still further, the primary deposition of Clinton iron ores in many parts of the Mississippi Valley and eastward to the Appalachians took place in stratigraphic horizons not far removed from the horizons of lead and zinc deposition. When the peculiar conditions controlling the deposition of the Clinton ores are understood (see pp. 52-53) it is entirely possible that they may throw some light on the genesis of the lead and zinc ores.

Since the ores were introduced into essentially their present locations, secondary concentration has produced an oxide zone of clay, chert, and iron oxide, with varying amounts of zinc carbonate, zinc silicate, lead sulphide, and rarely lead carbonate. This zone is obviously developed above water level, and is seldom as much as 100 feet thick. Zinc, and to a less extent lead, have been taken into solution as sulphates, with the aid of sulphuric acid resulting from the oxidation of the a.s.sociated pyrite. Zinc has been carried away from the weathered zone in solution faster than lead, leaving the lead more or less concentrated near the surface. Some of the zinc carried down has been redeposited secondarily as zinc sulphide. Evidences of this secondary sulphide enrichment can be seen in many places; yet certain broad quant.i.tative considerations raise a doubt as to whether this process has been responsible for the main portion of the values of the sulphide zone. If downward secondary enrichment had been a dominant process, it might be expected that the ores would be richer in places where erosion had cut away more than half the limestone formation carrying the ore, than in places where it had barely cut into the formation. This is not the fact,--which suggests that erosion in its downward progress has carried a large part of the zinc completely out of the vicinity.

Zinc ores of this same general character are also found in Paleozoic rocks (Knox dolomite) in Virginia and Tennessee. Their manner of occurrence suggests the same problem of origin as in Missouri and Wisconsin, but no decisive evidence of their source has been discovered.

Of the zinc ores a.s.sociated with igneous intrusions, those of the b.u.t.te and Coeur d'Alene districts are described in connection with copper and lead ores on pp. 201-203, 208, and 212-213.

Zinc const.i.tutes about 75 per cent by weight of the recoverable metals of the Leadville district of Colorado. About two-thirds of the zinc occurs as the sulphide and about one-third as the carbonate resulting from weathering of the sulphide. The zinc sulphide is a.s.sociated with lead, iron, and copper sulphides and gold and silver minerals. In the oxide zone the zinc carbonate is a.s.sociated with oxides and carbonates of various metals, including those of lead, copper, iron, and manganese.

The iron and manganese oxides are mined in considerable tonnage as a flux. It is an interesting fact that, although mining has been carried on in this district for upwards of forty years, only within the last decade has the existence of zinc ores in the oxide zone been recognized.

This has been due largely to the fact that the iron and manganese oxides effectively stain and mask the zinc carbonate.

The Leadville ores occur as replacements and vein-fillings in a gently faulted and folded Carboniferous limestone, in deposits of a general tabular shape, parallel to the bedding but with very irregular lower surfaces. The limestone is intruded by numerous sheets of porphyry, mainly parallel to the bedding but sometimes cutting across it, against the under sides of which most of the ore occurs. The primary sulphides are believed to be genetically related in some fas.h.i.+on to these porphyries. The older view was that the agents of deposition were aqueous solutions from the surface above, which derived their mineral content chiefly from the porphyries. Later views favor solutions coming directly from the porphyries or deeper igneous sources. While in form and a.s.sociation these ores are characteristic igneous contact deposits, they lack the high-temperature silicates which are so distinctive of many ores of this type.

The zinc ores of Franklin Furnace, New Jersey, belong in the group a.s.sociated with igneous agencies, but have certain unique features. They consist of willemite and zincite, together with large amounts of franklinite (an iron-manganese oxide) and silicates, in a pre-Cambrian white crystalline limestone near its contact with a coa.r.s.e-grained granite-gneiss. The origin of the ores is obscured by later shearing and metamorphism, but it seems best explained by replacement of the limestone by heated solutions coming from the granitic ma.s.s. The view has also been advanced that the ores originated in the limestone before the advent of the igneous rocks. Secondary concentration is not apparent.

FOOTNOTES:

[33] Ransome, Frederick Leslie, The copper deposits of Ray and Miami, Arizona: _Prof. Paper 115, U.S. Geol. Survey_, 1919, pp. 12-13.

CHAPTER XI

GOLD, SILVER, AND PLATINUM MINERALS

GOLD ORES

ECONOMIC FEATURES

The princ.i.p.al and most essential use of gold is as a standard of value and a medium of exchange. Gold has been prized since the earliest times because of its l.u.s.ter, color, malleability, and indestructibility, and has long been used as a trading medium. At present little of the metal is actually circulated from hand to hand. Stocks of gold, however, acc.u.mulated by governments and banking interests, form the essential foundation of paper currency and of the vast modern system of credit relations. In the settlement of international trade balances considerable quant.i.ties of gold frequently move from debtor to creditor nations. Although the amounts thus s.h.i.+pped are frequently great in value, they are very small in volume. It is interesting to note that the entire acc.u.mulated gold stocks of the world's governments--about nine billion dollars--cast in a solid block, with the horizontal dimensions of the Was.h.i.+ngton monument, would be only about 12 feet high.

Other uses of gold are in dentistry, and in the arts for jewelry, gilding, and other forms of ornamentation. Consumption for these purposes has been increasing of late years and now takes a third or more of the world's annual production. In the United States, before war-time restrictions were adopted, the consumption for jewelry and similar uses exceeded the consumption in coinage. Since the war it has exceeded the total domestic production of gold. An interesting problem for the future is how an adequate supply of gold is to be distributed between monetary uses and the arts. The curve of increase in the requirements of the arts indicates that, unless there is greatly increased production, all the world's gold will be necessary for the arts in a comparatively few years. To retain it for monetary purposes would require government restrictions.

Of all the mineral commodities, gold has played perhaps the most important and certainly the most romantic part in the world's history.

The "lure of gold" has taken men to the remotest corners of the globe.

It has been the moving force in the settlement and colonization of new countries, in numerous wars, and in many other strenuous activities of the human race.

About two-thirds of the annual gold production of the world comes from the British Empire--from South and West Africa, Australasia, Canada, and India. A single colony, the Transvaal, produces about 40 per cent of the world's total. British capital, which seems to have a particular affinity for investments in gold mines, controls not only the larger part of the output from the colonies, but also important mines in Siberia, Mexico, South America, and the United States.

Russia, Mexico, and j.a.pan have small gold production. The chief deposits of Russia are those of Siberia, which have had an important output and have apparent great possibilities of increase. Other foreign districts are numerous and widely scattered, but, with the exception of Colombia and Korea, no one of them yields 1 per cent of the world's gold.

French interests control about a tenth of the production of the Transvaal, and minor supplies in Mexico and South America--in all about 6 per cent of the world's production. Germany and Austria control less than 1 per cent of the total gold production. German interests formerly had extensive holdings in South Africa and Australia, but during the war this control was eliminated.

The United States, the second largest gold-producing country, supplies about 20 per cent of the world's total. Commercially it controls production of another 5 per cent in foreign countries, chiefly in Canada, Mexico, South America, and Korea. About one-fourth of the United States production comes from California. Other producing states in order of importance are Colorado, Alaska, South Dakota, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, and Utah. These eight states supply 95 per cent of the country's output, and most of the remainder is obtained from other western states.

International movements of gold depend chiefly upon its use in the settlement of trade balances, and are not governed by the considerations which control ordinary mineral commodities. Imports and exports vary with changing foreign trade balances. Large amounts of gold normally go to London, because Great Britain requires all gold produced in the colonies to be sent to England; but since England ordinarily has an unfavorable balance of trade, much of this gold is reexported. The United States up to a few years ago was also a debtor nation, and more gold was exported than was imported. During the war, however, this country became the greatest of the creditor nations and imports of gold, chiefly from Europe, were several times the exports.

The total world's gold production up to 1920 has been upwards of 19 billions of dollars, of which about 10 billions have gone into the arts or been hidden and lost, leaving 9 billions in monetary reserve.

At the present writing the United States government holds an unusually large fraction of the world's gold reserve, about 28 per cent or 2 billion dollars,--an amount equal to two-thirds of the aggregate production of the United States to date. Other large stocks of gold are held, in order, by Great Britain, France, and Russia, these three with the United States holding over a half of the world's total gold reserve.

Germany has about 1-1/2 per cent of the total reserve, and, with its tremendous debt and no sources of new production, is of course in a particularly unfavorable position.

The total amount of gold now (1920) accounted for by governments as money is not more than 10 per cent of the value of the notes and currency issued against this gold. Before the war it was 60 per cent. In the United States the pre-war percentage was 99-1/2 per cent. Since the war it has been 45 per cent. The ratio of gold to currency is now so small that the gold standard is hardly a physical fact, but is to be regarded rather more as a profession of faith. Notwithstanding the recent falling off in gold production, an increment of approximately 350 million dollars is potentially available each year to be added to the gold reserves. Whether this increment, or a larger increment which may come from new discoveries, is sufficient to maintain a reasonable proportion between gold stocks and the necessary normal increase in paper currency, has been, and doubtless will continue to be, a subject of vigorous discussion and speculation.

During and immediately following the war, the gold production of the world showed rather an alarming progressive decrease. About 1915 the group of three greatest producers--South Africa, United States, and Australia,--reached the acme of its production, and output then fell off. Simultaneously there was a marked decrease of production in many of the less important districts. This general decline was due in considerable part to the fact that during the war the price of gold was fixed and its use restricted to monetary purposes. The price of gold, which is itself the standard of value, could not rise to offset growing mining costs and to maintain profits, as was the case with iron, copper, and the other metals,--with the result that the margin of profit in gold mining became so small as materially to affect exploration and production. Another important cause of decreased production was the actual exhaustion of certain mines, and the lowering of the grades of ore available in many others. New discoveries did not supply these deficiencies. In the United States, for instance, physical conditions of one kind or another were responsible for lessening of production from Alaska, Cripple Creek, and California. Minor causes included conflicts in California between agricultural and mining interests over water rights, and a succession of dry seasons which did not afford enough water for the working of placers; and in Alaska difficulties due to litigation over the oil-flotation process of recovering gold from its ores. As a result of all these conditions, many of the smaller mines were closed down, others continued operations only by curtailing exploration and by mining solely the richest and most accessible ore bodies, and there was a general discouragement and lack of inducement to engage in gold mining.

The gold situation has become a matter of great concern to the various governments, since national financial stability and the confidence of the public in the national credit are based largely upon the acquirement of an adequate gold reserve. Both in England and in the United States, committees of experts have been appointed to make exhaustive investigations and present recommendations for measures to stimulate production. The report of the joint committee from the United States Bureau of Mines and Geological Survey gives a comprehensive review of the conditions in the gold-mining industry.[34]

During the war there was vigorous demand by gold miners both in the United States and South Africa for a bonus on gold. These demands received serious consideration on the part of the governments, but were denied on the general ground of the doubtful adequacy of such a measure to meet the situation, and the danger of upsetting the gold standard of value. In the United States, for instance, a bonus of $10 per ounce was asked for. It did not appear likely that this could increase the annual production from the United States by more than 10 per cent, in face of the physical conditions being met in gold mining. The bonus would have had to be paid on all the gold mined, which would make the increment of production very expensive; to secure an added production of ten million dollars would have cost in the neighborhood of forty millions. Ten millions is only one-third of 1 per cent of the gold reserve already held by this country, and it would obviously have taken a long time for this small increase in annual production to make itself felt in the size of the gold reserves.

Since the war gold has gone to a considerable premium in England, due to the action of the British government in establis.h.i.+ng a "free"

market,--that is, abandoning the restriction that gold marketed in London should be offered to the government or the Bank of England at the fixed statutory price for monetary purposes. With the pound sterling at a considerable discount outside of England, other countries could afford to bid, in terms of British currency, far above the British mint price.

The result is that the South African miner of gold receives a premium due to depreciation of sterling exchange, while the American miner still receives the regular mint price. The agitation for a bonus therefore continues in the United States. However, with the removal of war-time restrictions gold has been allowed to go to the arts, the demand from which is already equal to one-third of the world's gold production, is rapidly increasing, and is temporarily acute due to the acc.u.mulation of requirements resulting from war restrictions. This situation has a general tendency to improve the position of the gold miner, though the outlook is still far from bright.

It is an interesting fact that India is absorbing a good half of the free gold. India, in regard to its demand for precious metals and stones, has been described as "an abyss from which there is no return."

This is an important contributing cause of the shortage of gold in the rest of the world.

Looking forward to the future, it seems that increased exploration, which is resulting from the present premium on gold, is likely to bring in new reserves to increase production. Because of lack of important discoveries in recent years, there is pessimism in some quarters as to the possibilities of large increase of production; but, considering the history of gold discoveries, and the amount of ground still to be explored both areally and vertically, this pessimism does not seem to be wholly justified from the geologic standpoint. Curves representing the world's gold production in past years show periods of increasing annual production as new fields are discovered, followed by periods of decreasing production when no new ore bodies are coming in to replace dwindling reserves. It is entirely possible that in recent years the gold-mining industry has been merely in one of these temporary stagnant periods. There are many regions, both in the vicinity of worked-out lodes and in unsettled and poorly explored countries, where gold may still be discovered; there may be far greater resources of this metal still covered up than all those which man has thus far uncovered. A single new deposit or district may make a great difference in the world's production, as suggested by the experience of the past. Regions which are especially attractive for exploration and the discovery of new deposits are in Siberia and South America, which in the opinion of many engineers may eventually rival South Africa. Mexico, with the establishment of a stable government, should also have a greatly increased production.

GEOLOGIC FEATURES

The princ.i.p.al gold mineral is native or metallic gold. This occurs in nature in small scales, crystals, and irregular ma.s.ses, and also in microscopic particles mechanically mixed with pyrite and other sulphides. Chemically, gold is very inactive and combines with but few other elements. A small part of the world's supply is obtained from the gold-silver tellurides--calaverite, sylvanite, krennerite, and petzite.

Gold deposits are of two general cla.s.ses--placers, and veins or lodes.

Placers, which are in general the more easily discovered and more easily worked deposits, have in the past been the chief source of the world's gold supply. It is estimated that in the first twenty-seven years of the modern era of gold-mining, beginning with the discovery of gold in California in 1848, 87 per cent of the world's production was obtained from placers. At present the placers of recent geologic age supply a tenth to a fifth of the gold, and ancient or fossil placers in the Transvaal supply another two-fifths. In the United States about a fourth of the gold production comes from placers, mainly from California and Alaska.

Placers are detrital or fragmental sediments containing the ore in mechanical fragments, which are derived from the erosion and transportation of solid-rock veins or lodes, sometimes called the "mother lode." During the process of transportation and deposition there is more or less sorting, because of differing density of the mineral fragments, resulting in the segregation or concentration of the ore minerals in certain layers or channels. Gold, because of its weight, tends to work down toward bedrock, or into scoured or excavated portions of stream channels. In a few cases it is carried in some quant.i.ty to the sea and concentrated in beach sands. The processes are not unlike the mechanical concentration of ores by crus.h.i.+ng and water sorting. Seldom, however, do the processes go far enough in nature to produce an ore which can be used directly without some further mechanical sorting. Ore minerals concentrated in placers are those which resist abrasion and chemical solution during the processes of weathering and transportation, and which have a density sufficiently high so that they are partially sorted out and concentrated from the accompanying quartz and other minerals. To warrant their recovery they must also be of such high intrinsic value that it pays to mine small quant.i.ties. The most important of such minerals are gold, tin, platinum, and the precious stones. Iron, copper, lead, and zinc minerals are often somewhat concentrated as placers, but their intrinsic value is not high enough to warrant the attempt to recover them in the large amounts necessary to make them commercially available.

Placers are forming now and have formed at all stages of the earth's history. Early placers may be reworked and further concentrated by renewal of the proper erosional and transportational conditions. Old placers may be buried beneath younger rocks, cemented, and more or less recrystallized. "Fossil" placers of this kind are best represented by deposits in the Black Hills of South Dakota and probably by the South African gold deposits.

In the Wit.w.a.tersrand deposits of South Africa, the gold is concentrated in the lower parts of large conglomerate and quartz sand layers of great areal extent. Pebbles of the conglomerate are mainly quartz and quartzite. The gold, in particles hardly visible to the eye, is in a sandy matrix and is a.s.sociated with chloritoid, sericite, calcite, graphite, and other minerals. The origin of the gold deposits of this district is not entirely agreed on, but the evidence seems on the whole to favor their placer origin. Some investigators of these ores believe them to have been introduced into the conglomerate and sand by later solutions, possibly by hot solutions related to certain diabase intrusions that cut the beds.

In the vein or lode or hard-rock deposits, the gold is mainly metallic gold, and to a minor extent is in the form of gold tellurides. It is usually closely a.s.sociated with iron pyrite in a matrix or gangue of quartz. Seldom is a gold deposit free from important values in other minerals. About 84 per cent of the gold mined in vein or lode deposits of the United States is a.s.sociated with silver minerals, the combined value averaging about $6 per ton; about 13 per cent comes from copper ores which have an average yield of gold and silver of 50c. per ton; and 3 per cent comes from zinc and lead ores, with an average gold and silver yield ranging from $1 to $6 per ton. The geologic occurrence of gold in the copper, lead, and zinc ores has already been referred to in the discussions of these ores.

Reference will be made here only to the vein deposits in which gold, with silver, const.i.tutes the princ.i.p.al values. Because of their common gangue of quartz these are often called "dry" or "siliceous" ores. Their princ.i.p.al occurrence is in distinct fissure veins in igneous rocks, with more or less replacement of the wall rock. The igneous rocks are commonly acid intrusives of a granite or porphyry type, less commonly intrusives of gabbro and diabase and surface lavas of rhyolite and basalt. In a few cases the ores are contact-metamorphic deposits of the type described under copper ores. In still rarer cases they are in pegmat.i.tes. Gold is commonly a.s.sociated with minerals and wall-rock alterations indicating deposition by hot solutions, which are inferred to have come from the igneous rocks.

Because of the resistant nature both of ore minerals and gangue, weathering and secondary concentration have had little effect in enriching gold deposits. So far as there has been any noticeable effect on the gold content of the ores, it has been due to the leaching out of other const.i.tuents, princ.i.p.ally pyrite and other sulphides, leaving the gold present in slightly larger proportions. Locally there is evidence of solution of gold in weathered zones and its deposition in the sulphide zones below. Solution is believed to be accomplished by chloride solutions, and is favored by the presence of manganese which delays precipitation. The precipitating agent below may be ferrous sulphate, various sulphides, native metals, or organic matter.

Of the vein or lode gold ores in the United States some of the most productive and best known have the following geologic features:

The California gold belt extends north and south along the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The ore is in a series of parallel and overlapping veins striking with the trend of the range, a.s.sociated with granodiorite intrusives in schist and slate. There is no p.r.o.nounced secondary concentration. These deposits are the source of most of the great placer deposits of California, hence the name "Mother Lode"

applied to a part of them. The princ.i.p.al ore deposits are somewhat removed from the main ma.s.s of intrusive which forms the crest of the Sierra Nevada range, and are more closely related to the smaller similar intrusive ma.s.ses farther down the slope. The gangue is mainly quartz.