Ore

Summary

Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals concentrated above background levels, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit. The grade of ore refers to the concentration of the desired material it contains. The value of the metals or minerals a rock contains must be weighed against the cost of extraction to determine whether it is of sufficiently high grade to be worth mining, and is therefore considered an ore. A complex ore is one containing more than one valuable mineral. Minerals of interest are generally oxides, sulfides, silicates, or native metals such as copper or gold. Ore bodies are formed by a variety of geological processes generally referred to as ore genesis, and can be classified based on their deposit type. Ore is extracted from the earth through mining and treated or refined, often via smelting, to extract the valuable metals or minerals. Some ores,

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Cell-based Automatic Deformation Computation by Analyzing Terrestrial LIDAR Point Clouds

Pierre-Yves Gilliéron, Bertrand Merminod, Jing Wu

This paper presents a cell-based approach for computing the deformation of a monitored object by analyzing point cloud data from terrestrial lidar. This approach can automatically generate an informative deformation description (called "deformation map") with distinctive deformation characteristics for different partial areas. The approach consists of three major computing steps: (a) "split" - the space of the monitored object is divided into 3D uniform cells, (b) "detect" - deformation parameters for each cell (called "meta-deformation") are estimated by comparing the point clouds in the cell sampled at Epochs I and II, and (c) "merge" - the adjacent cells with similar meta-deformation are combined together in a partial area with a consistent "sub-deformation." The main contributions of this paper ore: (a) a hybrid deformation model for incremental and comprehensive deformation representation, including meta-deformation, sub-deformation and deformation map, (b) a systematic procedure of "split-detect-merge" to automatically and gradually estimate the hybrid deformation model, and (c) a complete validation with a couple of synthetic and real datasets.

2012

Uranium redox transition pathways in acetate-amended sediments

Daniel Scott Alessi, Rizlan Bernier-Latmani, Malgorzata Alicja Stylo, Elena Suvorova Buffat

Redox transitions of uranium [from U(VI) to U(IV)] in low-temperature sediments govern the mobility of uranium in the environment and the accumulation of uranium in ore bodies, and inform our understanding of Earth's geochemical history. The molecular-scale mechanistic pathways of these transitions determine the U(IV) products formed, thus influencing uranium isotope fractionation, reoxidation, and transport in sediments. Studies that improve our understanding of these pathways have the potential to substantially advance process understanding across a number of earth sciences disciplines. Detailed mechanistic information regarding uranium redox transitions in field sediments is largely nonexistent, owing to the difficulty of directly observing molecular-scale processes in the subsurface and the compositional/physical complexity of subsurface systems. Here, we present results from an in situ study of uranium redox transitions occurring in aquifer sediments under sulfate-reducing conditions. Based on molecular-scale spectroscopic, pore-scale geochemical, and macroscale aqueous evidence, we propose a biotic-abiotic transition pathway in which biomass-hosted mackinawite (FeS) is an electron source to reduce U(VI) to U(IV), which subsequently reacts with biomass to produce monomeric U(IV) species. A species resembling nanoscale uraninite is also present, implying the operation of at least two redox transition pathways. The presence of multiple pathways in low-temperature sediments unifies apparently contrasting prior observations and helps to explain sustained uranium reduction under disparate biogeochemical conditions. These findings have direct implications for our understanding of uranium bioremediation, ore formation, and global geochemical processes.

National Academy of Sciences2013

The Mayari-Baracoa ophiolitic belt in eastern Cuba hosts abundant chromite deposits of historical economic importance. Among these deposits, the chemistry of chromite ore is very variable, ranging from high Al (Cr#=0.43-0.55) to high Cr (Cr#=0.60-0.83) compositions. Platinum-group element (PGE) contents are also variable (from 33 ppb to 1.88 ppm) and correlate positively with the Cr# of the ore. Bulk PGE abundances correlate negatively with the Pd/Ir ratio showing that chromite concentrates mainly Os, Ir and Ru which gives rise to the characteristic negatively sloped, chrondrite-normalized PGE patterns in many chromitites. This is consistent with the mineralogy of PGEs, which is dominated by members of the laurite-erlichmanite solid solution series (RuS2-OsS2), with minor amounts of irarsite (IrAsS), Os-Ir alloys, Ru-Os-Ir-Fe-Ni alloys, Ni-Rh-As, and sulfides of Ir, Os, Rh, Cu, Ni, and/or Pd. Measured Os-187/Os-188 ratios (from 0.1304 to 0.1230) are among the lower values reported for podiform chromitites. The Os-187/Os-188 ratios decrease with increasing whole-rock PGE contents and Cr# of chromite. Furthermore, gamma Os values of all but one of the chromitite samples are negative indicating a subchondiritc mantle source. gamma Os decrease with increasing bulk Os content and decreasing Re-187/Os-188 ratios. These mineralogical and geochemical features are interpreted in terms of chromite crystallization from melts varying in composition from back-arc basalts (Al-rich chromite) to boninites (Cr-rich chromite) in a suprasubduction zone setting. Chromite crystallization occurs as a consequence of magma mixing and assimilation of preexisting gabbro sills at the mantle-crust transition zone. Cr#, PGE abundances, and bulk Os isotopic composition of chromitites are determined by the combined effects of mantle source heterogeneity, the degree of partial melting, the extent of melt-rock interactions, and the local sulfur fugacity. Small-scale (mu m to cm) chemical and isotopic heterogeneities in the platinum-group minerals are controlled by the mechanism(s) of chromite crystallization in a heterogeneous environment created by the turbulent regime generated by successive inputs of different batches of melt.

2005