The Economic Aspect of Geology Part 24

At Juneau, Alaska, great dikes of albite-diorite intrude greenstones and schists, and low-grade gold ores occur in shattered portions of the diorite. These ores were mined on a great scale at the Treadwell Mine.

Another famous low-grade deposit is the Homestake Mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where pre-Cambrian slates and schists of sedimentary origin are impregnated with gold, a.s.sociated with quartz, dolomite, calcite, pyrite, and other minerals. The origin is supposed to have some connection with intrusives into the schists; but the relations of the ores to intrusives, both in age and in place, present many puzzling questions which make conclusion as to origin very difficult.

In the Cripple Creek district of Colorado, a volcanic neck two or three miles in diameter breaks through pre-Cambrian granites, gneisses, and schists. The volcanic rocks consist mainly of tuffs and breccias cut by basic dikes. The ore bodies are in fissures and sheeted zones, princ.i.p.ally in the granitic rocks, but a.s.sociated with these dikes. The ore is mainly gold telluride, in a gangue of quartz together with pyrite and a variety of minerals characteristic of hot-water solutions. Also the wall rocks have the characteristic hot-water alterations. There is slight enrichment near the surface.

At Goldfield, Nevada, native gold is found in surface igneous flows of a dacite type, which have undergone extensive hydrothermal alterations characterized by the development of alunite (a pota.s.sium-aluminum sulphate), quartz, and pyrite. The ore fills fissures to some extent, but is mainly a replacement of the wall rock. a.s.sociation with typical hot-water minerals and hydrothermal alterations of the wall rock are again believed to indicate the origin of the ores through ascending hot solutions from a deep source.

One of the interesting features of this occurrence is the abundance of alunite. Sulphate minerals are commonly formed by oxidizing solutions.

The abundant presence, therefore, of a sulphate mineral with minerals of a primary deep-seated source has led to much discussion of origin. The hypothesis was developed that these minerals result from the interaction of deep-seated sulphide-bearing solutions with surface oxidizing solutions.[35] It may be noted that in recent years other sulphate minerals have been occasionally regarded as primary, including gypsum, anhydrite, barite, and others. It has been suggested that if igneous emanations contain free oxygen and sulphur, or sulphur dioxide, it would be expected that as they become cool sulphur trioxide would be formed which would result in the sulphate at suitable temperature.[36]

Other deposits containing gold are discussed in connection with silver on following pages.

SILVER ORES

ECONOMIC FEATURES

Silver has two important uses--in money and in the arts. As money, it is used in the United States and Europe for subsidiary coinage,--silver coins normally circulating at more than their intrinsic value,--but its greatest monetary use is in India and China, where it has been the basis for the settlement of foreign exchange balances. In China also it is the money standard of the country. In the arts, silver is employed chiefly in the making of articles of luxury, such as jewelry and tableware. In the Orient this use is closely related to its use as money, since the natives invest their savings both in silver jewelry and silver coins.

There is some consumption of silver by certain chemical industries, and quant.i.ties of increasing importance are used in the form of silver salts by the photographic and moving picture industries. It has been estimated that before 1914 about two-thirds of the new silver produced went into the arts and one-third into money. During the war, however, increasing amounts were used in coinage, and less than one-fifth of the output was used in the arts. Demands for silver for monetary purposes will probably continue to take the larger part of the world's production for some time. In this connection it may be noted that India has adopted a gold standard, but that the conservative habits of the population will doubtless continue to call for large amounts of silver.

About half of the silver production of the world comes from the dry or siliceous silver ores, which are mined solely for that metal and the a.s.sociated gold; and about half of the production is obtained as a by-product in the mining of other metals, princ.i.p.ally copper and lead.

The average grades of these ores, in combined values of gold and silver, were referred to on p. 228. While the aggregate amount of silver obtained as a by-product of other ores is large, the percentage of silver in the copper or lead in any mine is ordinarily very small.

Consequently the world output of silver depends to a considerable extent upon conditions in the copper- and lead-mining industries.

Of the total world output of silver, normally about 75 per cent comes from North America. Of this the United States and Mexico each produce about two-fifths and Canada one-fifth, and minor amounts are produced in Central America. In late years, political disturbances in Mexico reduced that country's production to less than half the normal figure, and the United States took the place which Mexico had held for many years as the leading silver producer. The United States and Mexican supply is obtained from the Rocky Mountain belt, and the Canadian production comes chiefly from the Cobalt, Ontario, district. Outside of North America the princ.i.p.al producing areas are Australia, South America (Peru and to a less extent Bolivia and Chile), Europe (chiefly from Spain, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, but with smaller amounts from all the other countries), and j.a.pan. Thus, while there are sources of silver in many places, the great bulk of the world's output comes from North America. In the financial owners.h.i.+p of mines, including owners.h.i.+p in other countries, the United States controls over half the world's silver, Great Britain about a third, and Germany about a tenth (princ.i.p.ally in Mexico).

All the silver mined in the United States is smelted and refined by domestic plants; and in addition much of the Canadian, Mexican, and South and Central American silver is exported to the United States as ore and base bullion, to be treated in this country. The United States is therefore the great silver-selling country of the world.

The great silver-consuming countries are India and China, and normally about a half of the world's output goes to these two countries. This major movement of silver, from America to the Far East, takes place through the London market, since England has been the chief nation trading in the Orient. The balance of the world's silver consumption is widely distributed among the countries of Europe and South America and the United States (which consumes about one-tenth of the total). For the European trade most of the silver also goes through London, which is the great clearing-house and the market where prices are fixed.

In the later years of the war and immediately after, the demands for silver were probably twice the world's output. The resulting rise in price was unprecedented. Silver actually became worth more as bullion than as currency, and in Europe much trouble was experienced because of its withdrawal from currency to be melted up. This condition was later followed by an equally striking drop in price as supply caught up with demand.

In the United States, as in many other countries, it was desired during the war to acc.u.mulate large stocks of gold as a basis of credit for the flotation of government loans, and the export of gold was prohibited.

Consequently in the settlement of foreign trade balances, particularly with the nations of the Orient, very large amounts of silver bullion had to be used. Current production proved inadequate, and it was necessary to utilize the stocks of silver dollars in the United States Treasury.

To this end the Pittman Silver Act, pa.s.sed in April, 1918, authorized the melting down and conversion into bullion of 350,000,000 dollars out of the Treasury stock, and the retirement of a corresponding number of silver certificates and the issue of Federal Reserve bank notes. In this manner old stocks of silver, Manila dollars, etc., were called into service--though the stage was not reached, as it was in Germany, where it became necessary to melt down silver plate and ornaments. The silver used for exchange and export was to be replaced by the purchase of bullion from American producers at $1 per ounce, and its coining into new dollars. A minimum price of $1 per ounce was thus established for silver bullion.

The immediate result was to increase the price of silver at the mine; but with the continued rise in demands for silver, the price in the open market went far above this figure, the maximum being reached in 1920 when the price of silver went to $1.39 per ounce. Naturally, but little silver was then offered to the government at the fixed price of $1 under the Pittman Act. With the more recent slump in the general market for silver to a price below $1, offers to the government under the Pittman Act have been renewed.

That part of the silver production which is a by-product of copper production has been low since the war, because of the stagnation in the copper industry. The production from lead ores, on the other hand, was not handicapped by lack of demand for lead. With the restoration of order in Mexico, a presumption of large silver production in that country may be expected. Increases may probably be expected also from new mines in Burma and from Bolivia. On the whole, no large increase in world production can be a.s.sumed from present known resources. New discoveries will be necessary to make any considerable change.

Of the mine production of silver in the United States, about two-thirds of the total comes from the states of Montana, Utah, Idaho, and Nevada.

Other considerable producers are Colorado, Arizona, California, Alaska, and New Mexico. All the other states together produce less than 5 per cent of the total. The most important single districts are the b.u.t.te district of Montana, the Coeur d'Alene district of Idaho, and the Tonopah district of Nevada, supplying respectively about one-fifth, one-eighth, and one-tenth of the country's total silver output.

GEOLOGIC FEATURES

The most important mineral of silver is the sulphide, argent.i.te or "silver glance." Other minerals which yield a minor percentage of the total silver produced are the silver-antimony sulphides, pyrargyrite or "ruby silver," stephanite or "black silver," and polybasite; the silver-a.r.s.enic sulphides, proust.i.te or "light ruby silver" and pearcite; and the silver antimonide, dyscrasite. In the oxide zone the most abundant minerals are cerargyrite (silver chloride) and native or "horn"

silver. In addition to these definite mineral forms, silver is present in many ores in an undetermined form in other sulphides, notably in galena, sphalerite, and pyrite. Silver differs from gold in that it is chemically active and forms many stable compounds, of which only the more important have been mentioned.

The fact that half the world's silver is obtained as a by-product in the mining of other metals has been referred to. In the United States about a third of the production comes from dry or siliceous ores, over a third from lead and zinc ores, and a fourth to a third from copper ores. A fraction of 1 per cent of the total is obtained as a by-product of gold placers, and all the remainder is won from lode or hard-rock deposits.

The general geologic features of the silver-bearing copper and lead ores, and of the dry or siliceous gold and silver ores, have been described on previous pages. The Philipsburg district has been referred to in connection with manganese ores, and the Bolivian tin-silver ores will be described in connection with tin. We shall consider here only a few of the more prominent districts which have been primarily silver producers.

The Cobalt district of northern Ontario is the most productive silver district in North America. The ores are found in numerous short, narrow veins, princ.i.p.ally in pre-Cambrian sediments near a thick quartz-diabase sill. Locally they penetrate the sill. Native silver and various silver sulphides, a.r.s.enides, and antimonides are a.s.sociated with minerals of cobalt, nickel, bis.m.u.th, lead, and zinc, in a gangue of calcite and some quartz. The ore is of very high grade. The ore minerals are believed to have been deposited by hot solutions emanating from deep magmatic sources after the intrusion of the diabase. The present oxidized zone is very shallow, but may have been deeper before being stripped off by glaciation; it is characterized by native silver and a.r.s.enates of nickel and cobalt in the form of the green "nickel bloom" and the pink "cobalt bloom." The silver minerals are distinctly later in origin than the cobalt and nickel in the unoxidized zone, as evidenced by the relations of the mineral individuals when seen under the microscope. This fact, together with the abundance of native silver in the oxide zone, has suggested downward concentration of the silver by surface waters; but recent studies have indicated the probability that some of the silver at least was deposited by the later ascending solutions of magmatic origin.

In the Tintic district of central Utah, Paleozoic limestones have been intruded by monzonite (an acid granitic or porphyritic igneous rock), and covered by surface flows, the flows for the most part having been removed by subsequent erosion. The sediments have been much folded and faulted, and the ore bodies occur as fissure veins which locally widen into chimneys or pipes in fracture zones, accompanied by much replacement of limestone. There is a rough zonal arrangement of the ore minerals around the intrusive, gold and copper minerals (chiefly enargite and chalcopyrite) being more prominent near the intrusive, and argentiferous galena and zinc blende richer at greater distances. Silver const.i.tutes the princ.i.p.al value. The gangue is mainly fine-grained quartz or jasperoid, and barite. The water table is at unusually great depths (2,400 feet) and there is a correspondingly deep oxidized zone, which is characterized by lead and zinc oxide minerals much as at Leadville (p. 219).

The Comstock Lode at Virginia City, Nevada, on the east slope of the Sierra Nevadas, was one of the most famous bonanza deposits of gold and silver in the world. While the richer ore has all been extracted, lower-grade material is still being mined and the fissure is still being followed, in the hope of some day striking another fabulously rich ore body. The lode occupies a fault fissure parallel to the trend of the range and dipping about 40 degrees to the east, which can be traced about two and a half miles along the strike, with igneous rocks forming both hanging and foot walls. There are no sedimentary rocks in the district. The high-grade part of the vein is several hundred feet in thickness, with many irregular branches; the great thickness has been thought to be at least in part due to the tremendous pressure exerted by growing quartz crystals. The wall rocks have undergone a "propylitic"

alteration, with development of chlorite, epidote, and probably sericite, much as at b.u.t.te. The ore contains rich silver sulphide minerals and native gold, in a gangue composed almost entirely of quartz. The ore was doubtless formed by hot solutions, but the exact nature of these solutions, whether magmatic or meteoric, has not been proven. The hypothesis was early developed that the ores were deposited by surface waters,--which are supposed to have fallen on the summits of the Sierra Nevadas, to have sunk to great depths where they were heated, enabling them to pick up metallic const.i.tuents from the diabase forming one wall of the ore body, and to have risen under artesian pressure along the fault plane, where loss of heat and pressure resulted in deposition. Later studies have emphasized the similarity of the ore-depositing conditions with those in other districts where the ores are believed to have come directly from magmatic sources, and this origin is now generally favored for the Comstock Lode. However, the earlier theory has not been disproved.

The Tonopah, Nevada, district is very similar to the Goldfield district (p. 230). Silver and gold are found in veins and replacements in a series of Tertiary volcanic flows and tuffs, all of which have been complexly faulted. Silver is the dominant const.i.tuent of value. The formation of fissures and faults accompanying and caused by the intrusion and cooling of lavas was first clearly shown in this district.

Evidences of origin through the work of hot solutions, probably magmatic, are the close a.s.sociation of the ores in place and in time with the igneous rocks--ore deposition in most of the flows having taken place before the next overlying flows were put down,--the presence of fluorine, the nature of the wall-rock alterations, the fact that both hot and cold springs are found close together underground (indicating unusual sources for the hot springs), the contrast in composition between the ores and the country rock, and the general relation of these ores to a large number of similar occurrences in Tertiary lavas in the same general area.

Under weathering conditions, the silver sulphide minerals in general are oxidized to form native silver and cerargyrite, which are relatively insoluble and remain for the most part in the oxide zone. Silver is less soluble than copper and zinc, but more soluble than gold; and to some extent it is removed in solution, particularly where the oxidation of pyrite forms ferric sulphate. Farther down it may be reprecipitated as native silver, argent.i.te, and the sulpho-salts, by organic matter or by various sulphides. The secondarily enriched ores are in a few districts, as at Philipsburg, Montana, the most valuable portions of the deposits.

In other cases, sulphide enrichment does not appear to have contributed greatly to the values. The zones of oxide ores, secondary sulphide ores, and primary or protores are in most silver deposits much less regular and much less definitely marked than in the case of copper ores.

PLATINUM ORES

ECONOMIC FEATURES

The princ.i.p.al uses of platinum are: as a catalytic agent in the contact process for the manufacture of sulphuric acid, and in the making of nitric acid from ammonia; for chemical laboratory utensils that must be resistant to heat and acids; for electrical contacts for certain telephone, telegraph, and electrical control instruments, and for internal combustion engines; in dental work; and for jewelry. In normal times before the war, it is estimated that in the United States the jewelry and dental industries used 75 per cent of the platinum metals consumed, the electrical industry 20 per cent, and the chemical industry 5 per cent. During the war, with the extraordinary expansion of sulphuric and nitric acid plants, these proportions were reversed and the chemical and electrical industries consumed about two-thirds of the platinum. Subst.i.tutes have been developed, particularly for the electrical uses, and the demand from this quarter may be expected to decrease.

About 90 per cent of the world's crude platinum produced annually comes from the Ural Mountains in Russia. The deposits next in importance are those of Colombia. Small amounts are produced in New South Wales, Tasmania, New Zealand, Borneo, British Columbia, United States, India, and Spain; and as a by-product in the electrolytic refining of the Sudbury, Canada, nickel ores. The extension of this method of refining to all of the Sudbury ores would create an important supply of platinum.

The Colombian output has been increasing rapidly since 1911. Meanwhile the Russian production has declined; and from the best information available, it is not likely that Russia will be able to maintain production for many more years. Estimates of the life of the Russian fields are from 12 to 20 years at the pre-war rate of production.

The platinum situation is commercially controlled by buying and mine-operating agencies,--the French having, before the war, practically dominated the Russian industry, while American interests controlled in Colombia. The situation is further influenced by four large refineries, in England, Germany, United States, and France.

Before the war the United States produced less than 1 per cent of the new platinum it consumed annually. Production comes princ.i.p.ally from California, with smaller amounts from Oregon, Alaska, and Nevada. The many efforts which have been made to develop an adequate domestic supply of this metal do not indicate that the United States can ever hope to become independent of foreign sources for its future supplies of platinum.

There is little reason to doubt that the Colombia field, commercially dominated by the United States, holds great promise for the future. The output has come largely from native hand labor, and with the installation of dredges can probably be greatly increased.

During the war, the need for platinum for war manufactures was so urgent and the production so reduced, that restrictions against its use in jewelry were put into force in all the allied countries. The United States government secured quant.i.ties of platinum which would have been sufficient for several years' use if war had continued. With the cessation of hostilities restrictions on the use of platinum were removed, and the acc.u.mulated metal was released by the government from time to time in small quant.i.ties; but the demands for platinum in the arts were so great that prices for a time tended to even higher levels than during the war. More recently supply is again approaching demand.

GEOLOGIC FEATURES

Platinum, like gold, occurs chiefly as the native metal. This is usually found alloyed with iron and with other metals of the platinum group, especially iridium, rhodium, and palladium. Most of the platinum as used in jewelry and for electrical purposes contains iridium, which serves to harden it. Paladium-gold alloys are a subst.i.tute for platinum, chiefly in dental uses.

The original home of platinum is in basic igneous rocks, such as peridot.i.tes, pyroxenites, and dunites, where it has been found in small, scattered crystals intergrown with olivine, pyroxene, and chromite.

Platinum is very dense and highly resistant to oxidation and solution.

In the breaking up and was.h.i.+ng away of the rocks, therefore, it is concentrated in small grains and scales in stream and beach placers. Of the world production of platinum over 99 per cent has been derived from placers.

The Ural Mountain deposits of Russia are gold- and platinum-bearing placers, in streams which drain areas of dunite rock containing minute quant.i.ties of native platinum. The deposits of Colombia and Australasia are placers of a similar character. In the United States small quant.i.ties of platinum are recovered from the gold-bearing gravels of California and Oregon, where the streams have come from areas of serpentine and peridot.i.te.

A platinum a.r.s.enide, called sperrylite, is sometimes found a.s.sociated with sulphide minerals in basic igneous rocks. At Sudbury, Ontario, this mineral, together with palladium a.r.s.enide, is found in the nickel ores, especially in the weathered zone where it is concentrated by removal of more soluble materials. It has also been found in the copper mines of Rambler, Wyoming. In the Yellow Pine district of southern Nevada, metallic gold-platinum-palladium ore shoots are found in a.s.sociation with copper and lead ores, in a fine-grained quartz ma.s.s which replaces beds of limestone near a granitic dike. No basic intrusives are known in the district. The deposit is unusual in that it has a comparatively high content of platinum (nearly an ounce to the ton), and is probably genetically related to acid intrusives. From all these deposits, only small quant.i.ties of platinum are mined.