MINLIB, established by Graham Wilson in 1983, is a versatile database containing much to offer to both the scientific specialist and the non-technical reader. Each record provides a bibliographic citation to a book, map, report or journal article, plus 1 to 30 lines of a "keyword"-rich text describing the content. The long-term intention has been to publish the database, and perhaps some related files, plus "slide shows" such as the Lake Superior show (qv) at a price affordable to a wide audience, as soon as is reasonably practical. In the interim, MINLIB is being kept up-to-date, and all sources are currently indexed to reflect information received recently. Ongoing updates include both new publications and also older but still-valuable sources.
NOTE that, while the examples given here are perfectly valid, MINLIB and the related WORLD are dynamic databases, which as of March 2017 contained more than 109,000 records, with more than 87,500 in MINLIB and 21,500 in WORLD. CLICK HERE to view alphabetical and thematic tables of select MINLIB holdings (2015, pdf file, 177 kb) --- or view these plus some additional selections, somewhat more up to date, in order of coverage in a table at the Introduction to Turnstone. The two databases are growing steadily, albeit slower than in their early years, and as of May 2020 exceed 90,000 (MINLIB) and 24,000 (WORLD), total >114,000 records.
CLICK HERE to see four detailed examples of MINLIB coverage --- books published in 2013: HART on Gold; BRANDSTATTER et al. on Meteorites; LAW on woodlot craft; and ELTON on sustainable agriculture (pdf file, 209 kb). CLICK on a subject in the table below, or browse the whole document, to see 24 older records from MINLIB. Critical readers should also check the notes that follow the table of contents.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| 1. | History of Mining |
| Iron in Lake Superior region, 1888 | |
| Tin in Cornwall, 1841 | |
| 2. | Archaeology & Archaeometry, 1991 (6 records) |
| 3. | Metallurgy, 1987 |
| 4. | Materials Science, 2000 |
| 5. | Platinum Group Elements, 1992-1998 (3 records) |
| 6. | Giant Mineral Deposits, 1960-2001 (3 records) |
| 7. | Regional Geology & Resources, I, Grenville, 1915-1945 (2 records) |
| 8. | Regional Geology & Resources, II, Various, 1993-1995 (2 records) |
| 9. | Quaternary Geology, 1993-2000 (2 records) |
| 10. | Meteorites, 2000-2001 (2 records) |
It is important to note that a keyword summary should in no way be considered a substitute for the original work. Quite apart from the loss of any graphical content (maps and figures) the summary is ill-suited to convey large bodies of data, or subtleties of expression. It is the responsibility of every researcher to verify her or his own sources, and MINLIB and other databases are merely a convenient stepping stone to the most relevant articles. While considerable care is taken to provide a high-quality product, neither the author nor Turnstone can assume any responsibility for errors of any kind in MINLIB, or for any deficiencies in the source materials. Increasing numbers of journals and news media now provide archived full-text copies of their back issues, on-line or in CD-ROM format, but for serious research in many topics covered by MINLIB there is still no substitute for a good library! MINLIB, in the end, represents the author's small selection from the torrent of publications, a "fishing expedition" for matters of timely or historic interest. Read on, but check your own sources. Above all, geology is fun!
The database coverage is naturally focused on the past 30 years, a career, or generation. There are also thousands of records to older work: in the descriptive aspects of the sciences, for example, much classic work was published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
MINLIB now (March 2017) contains more than 87,000 records on non-confidential material, covering such fields as regional geology, mineral deposits, mineralogy, geochemistry, structural geology, igneous and metamorphic petrology, meteoritics and planetary science. It also has extensive content relevant to geochemical analysis, materials science, metallurgy and archaeology. Special geographic focus applies to a worldwide selection of regions: a few of the more obvious examples, on different scales, include many parts of Canada, South America, the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa and Australia.
The full MINLIB system operates on its own detailed thesaurus, and makes extensive use of acronyms and abbreviations --- indeed, the full system can function as something of a glossary of unusual terms in specialized fields, such as geochemical analysis. A published version will of course include an updated thesaurus as part of its documentation.
Note: only citation data and key words are shown - there are also more than 80 logical fields in MINLIB which are flagged during data entry, and are used for database searches alongside (or instead of) the text shown here. In other respects, apart from the exact appearance of the text (which is software-dependent, particularly for scientific characters and accents) the following examples are representative of MINLIB records, with some bias towards some of the more-detailed examples.
For a tabulation of some major topics in the database, and more on the design, see the Introduction to Turnstone too.
*****
LeGRICE,CV (1841) Notice of an ancient smelting-place of tin, generally called a Jews' House, lately discovered on the estate of Trereife, near Penzance. Roy.Geol.Soc.Cornwall, 28th annual report, 43-46.
History of science - metal refining - the Penzance area of western Cornwall, S.W.England, UK, Europe - Sn smelting - old refineries in Cornwall generally occur near streams, or near the earliest mines, and all that may remain of the old workings is a shallow pit with some charcoal at the bottom, `and frequently a piece of the smelted tin, which, although very pure in itself, is generally mixed with earth or sand, often vitrified' (p.43) - the early refining method was very simple: an excavation was made, a pile of wooden fuel added, Sn ore inserted into cracks, and the whole ignited, causing the liberated tin to flow down and mix with the sand and earth at the base - masses of Sn smelted in this way have been found weighing as much as 34 pounds (15.4 kg) - the largest example `was found in a hedge in the parish of Gwinear', and sold at the Angarrack Smelting House, whereon `the Goth of a refiner put it at once into a ladle and melted it down' - industrial archaeology - one example found near St. Just weighed 6 pounds (2.7 kg) and was partly decomposed to Sn chloride, perhaps due to use of dried seaweed as a fuel in smelting (`even now this article forms a large portion of the fuel of the Scilly Islanders') - the Trereife smelter site was quite different, in the form of an inverted cone in a bank of clay, 3 feet (91 cm) high and about 3 feet wide at the top - there is evidence that an air blast was incorporated into this more sophisticated design, which is most probably of Roman date - a 26-pound (11.8 kg) slab of refined Sn metal was found at the site - within a few hundred m of the site are old Sn workings, such as Trewidden and Huel Garth (Huel Darby).
*****
2. ARCHAEOLOGY & ARCHAEOMETRY
(6 records)
Here we take a single book, and summarize both the book and five
of the constituent articles.
*****
BOWMAN,S (editor) (1991) Science and the Past. British Museum Press, 192pp.
Archaeology - materials science - provenance studies - with 10 chapters (5/10 in MINLIB), glossary (mostly paragraph-length detailed definitions of methods of geochemical analysis) and index - history of science - ceramics and glass - mining and metal refining - metalworking - age dating - authentication - computer applications - with colour illustrations - ancient metal, coin and pottery samples - petrography and chemistry - the Lycurgus cup (fine colour images) - smelting - swords - enamel, brick and tile.
*****
CRADDOCK,P (1991) Mining and smelting in antiquity. In `Science and the Past' (Bowman,S editor), British Museum Press, 192pp., 57-73.
Archaeology - materials science - provenance studies - early mining methods - stone tools - fire setting - Cymystwyth, Wales (UK, Europe) - the Bronze Age - Cu smelting at Timna (Israel, Middle East) - slag mineralogy a useful clue to smelting processes - the Iron Age - Zawar, Agucha and Dariba (Rajasthan, northwest India) - Ag smelting - early Zn smelting / distillation at Zawar - Roman smelting at Rio Tinto in Spain, where jarosite ore of Ag Sb As was processed with addition of Pb from elsewhere - arsenic - speiss - with 26 references.
*****
FREESTONE,I (1991) Looking into glass. In `Science and the Past' (Bowman,S editor), British Museum Press, 192pp., 37-56.
Archaeology - materials science - provenance studies - ancient glass compositions - Europe, Middle East and north Africa - major elements in glasses of Egypt (15th century B.C.), Roman glass (1st century A.D.), Europe (13th century A.D.), Syria (14th century A.D.) and modern glass - petrography, photomicrographs - colour and opacity of glass - opaque red glass from Nimrud in Iraq, Middle East, dating to the 8th century B.C., contains crystallites of cuprite - Roman luxury glass: the Portland vase - Byzantine mosaics - enamels - the late-Roman Lycurgus cup (pp.52-54) appears green in reflected light, red in transmitted light - such Roman dichroic glass is extremely rare - tiny shards from the base of the cup were analysed and indicate that the glass is a colloid containing nm-scale Au-Ag alloy blebs, of overall concentration 300 ppm Ag and 40 ppm Au - the blebs are typically 70 nm in diameter - with 29 notes and references.
*****
HUGHES,M (1991) Tracing to source. In `Science and the Past' (Bowman,S editor), British Museum Press, 192pp., 99-116.
Archaeology - materials science - provenance studies - studies of ceramics using petrography and chemistry (geochemical analysis - INAA - trace elements) - pottery and tiles - Sn glaze on pottery from Spain - stone tools - flint in southern England (UK, Europe) - flint mines at Grimes Graves, Norfolk - O isotopes and C isotopes in marbles of Mediterranean Europe - quarrying at Penteli near Athens, Greece - metals - bronzes, including examples from Nigeria, west Africa, with up to 1.2% Ag - with 29 references.
*****
JONES,L (1991) Computerising the collections: the art of successful flea handling. In `Science and the Past' (Bowman,S editor), British Museum Press, 192pp., 172-181.
Archaeology - museum practice - computer databases - questions of classification, nomenclature, taxonomy, hierarchy, inventory, appropriate level of detail - documentation of museum collections - use of a thesaurus or authority list - 3 references.
*****
MIDDLETON,A (1991) Ceramics: materials for all reasons. In `Science and the Past' (Bowman,S editor), British Museum Press, 192pp., 16-26.
Archaeology - materials science - provenance studies - brick and tile samples - petrography, photomicrographs and SEM images - Roman era tiles from southern England (UK, Europe) - mortars and concrete - plaster - cooking pots - colouring agents such as hematite - funerary vessels - pottery from China - vitrification of quartz - fragments from a Zn distillation furnace at Zawar (Rajasthan, northwest India), a famous early site of metal refining - moulds for bronze casting, made in the loess deposits of northern China - faience - 26 references.
*****
3. METALLURGY
(1 record)
COMMITTEE ON RAW MATERIALS (1987)
Ferro-silicon and the Steel Industry.
International Iron and Steel Institute, Committee on Raw Materials,
Brussels, 89pp.
Ferrous metallurgy - one of a series of reports on the raw materials used
in the manufacture of iron and steel - the market in ferrosilicon and silicon
ferro-alloys - history of science - Berzelius was the first to isolate Si in
1808 - within two years it was realized that Si could be used to harden
steel - ferrosilicon was first produced on an industrial scale in 1889, the
year in which the first modern study of FeSi alloys was published by
Hadfield - ferrosilicon is used as a graphitization accelerator in cast iron
manufacture, and as alloying element, deoxidizer and heat source in steel
making - effect of Si on physical properties of steel - ferrosilicon addition
yields steel with excellent electrical properties - Si removes excess O from
steel by the simple reaction
Si + O2 = SiO2
(the O was introduced at an
earlier stage, to remove C and P from steel) - ferrosilicon also reduces Cr
oxides in slag, returning the Cr metal to the steel - addition of 400 g of
FeSi (75%) per tonne of molten steel can increase temperature by
10°C - in cast iron, Si promotes graphite and ferrite formation,
while lowering Si content sends C to cementite, hardening the steel -
ferrosilicon used in the steel industry contains 45-90% FeSi - some
low-grade FeSi (~14-16% Si) is used in heavy media separation for
ore beneficiation: all higher-grade material is made in 3-phase submerged
arc furnaces with Soderberg self-baking electrodes - a large modern 50
MW furnace may produce 45,000 tonnes of FeSi (75%) per year - the
main raw materials of ferrosilicon are quartzite and reductants - Fe is
added as steel scrap or high-grade Fe ore or pellets - interim products
include SiC and SiO2 - 1 T of 75% FeSi typically consumes 1.9 T
quartzite, 750 kg fixed carbon (as charcoal, coal or coke of various types,
or wood chips), and 220 kg steel scrap or 330-350 kg iron ore / ore
pellets / mill scale - charcoal is an excellent reductant, with high porosity
and reactivity - impurities in ferrosilicon (p.14) - charcoal may impart up
to 2% Ca - SiC inclusions typically yield 0.15-0.20% C in the product (in
larger furnaces SiC floats to the top, and C can be reduced to 0.10%) -
furnace design, furnace operation and pollution control - power
consumption and efficiency - quality issues (pp.23-25) - typical Si contents
are 65, 75, 90 and 45-50% - in the steel industry FeSi (75%) is used
mostly for deoxidation and alloying - consumption of FeSi (50%) is
declining - FeSi (90%) is used mostly in the chemical industry , and in
part in the steel business (ladle metallurgy) - lower-grade, cheaper
ferrosilicon is preferred as an energy source for melting extra scrap metal
- maximum impurity limits are commonly as follows: Al (2%), Ti
(0.1-0.3%), C (0.1-0.2%), S (0.02-0.05%) and P (0.002-0.05%) -
restrictions of C and P in some steels are more stringent than the highest
levels quoted above - ferrosilicon is cast as ingots and crushed to
appropriate particle sizes, e.g., 75-200 mm for alloying, 25-100 mm for
deoxidation (no more than 5-10% of the total is permitted to fall outside
the specified range) - ferrosilicon itself is not hazardous, but poisonous
phosphine gas, H3P,
may be formed by reaction of P with humidity or
water on fresh surfaces - phase-out of the open hearth furnace has reduced
usage of some forms of ferrosilicon: when scrap was used and FeSi was
employed to supply energy, `big lumps of 45-50% Si were needed to
penetrate the slag' (p.27): more modern systems use smaller lumps, down
from 100-200 mm to 3-35 and 25-100 mm, with the FeSi in 65, 75 and
90% grades - other factors increase usage of FeSi, such as deoxidation of
Cr oxide and steel - specifications and standards for ferrosilicon
compositions and particle sizes (ISO standard 5445, pp.34-35), with
minima and maxima for Si and Al and maxima for other elements: P S C
Mn Cr Ti (the maxima for Ti are all 0.20-0.30%) - review of world
production capacity for ferrosilicon - production figures for ferrosilicon
and related alloys - import and export figures worldwide - reported
ferrosilicon usage in Canada in 1985 was 70,850 tonnes (pp.73,84) -
mineral economics.
*****
4. MATERIALS SCIENCE
(1 record)
MAY,PW (2000) Diamond thin films: a 21st-century material.
Phil.Trans.Roy.Soc.London A 358, 473-495.
Materials science - novel means of exploiting the physical properties of diamond - history of science - the HPHT and CVD methods of producing synthetic diamonds - thin films - CVD (chemical vapour deposition) mechanisms for diamond creation - experimental methods for creating diamond thin films by reacting a gas phase above a suitable substrate - growth of diamond (as opposed to graphite) normally requires that the precursor gas (usually CH4) is diluted by a larger quantity of H (usually down to 1 vol.% CH4) - the substrate is usually held at >700°C to ensure formation of diamond instead of amorphous carbon (p.475) - HFCVD (hot filament CVD) is a relatively cheap technique - HFCVD involves maintaining a vacuum chamber at a fixed pressure, typically 20-30 Torr, while a substrate heater brings a substrate such as Si or Mo to 700-900°C - the reactive gas mix is fed through the chamber at a controlled rate - a filament, suspended a few mm above the substrate and made of a refractory metal such as W or Ta is heated to >2200°C - the method generates polycrystalline diamond films at typical rates of 1-10 µm/hour - HFCVD gradually destroys the filaments (which react to form carbides) and also introduces metallic impurities at levels of tens of ppm, unacceptable for electronic uses - in consequence, other variants such as MWCVD (microwave plasma CVD) are commonly used - plasma jet methods - the combustion flame method - chemistry of diamond growth (pp.478-482) - a high concentration of atomic H is critical to the success of CVD - a Bachmann triangle plot (a ternary of C H O proportions) indicates the constraints to diamond formation, p.480) - prospects for use of diamond thin films - hard coatings - semiconductors.
*****
A review of PGE geochemistry - geochemical exploration - examples from S.Africa - magma chamber processes - R factors - the Bushveld mafic layered intrusion - magmatic S - sulphide liquid immiscibility - partition coefficients - fractionation of Cu Ni PGE during crystallization of the sulphide melt - metal ratios - PGE patterns - chromitites - Os Ir Ru Rh Pt Pd - Cu/Pd ratios - olivine as a tracer in sulphide segregation - evaluation of S loss using Se / S ratios - PGE and S in silicate rocks - element depletion in magmas undergoing removal of sulphides - komatiitic and MORB basalts of the Chukotat Group of the Cape Smith fold belt of northern Quebec, Canada - lavas of the Noril'sk region of Siberia (Russia, former USSR) - Ni contents as a function of forsterite content in olivines in mafic intrusions - notes (p.250) of metal ratios in various suites, including the Bushveld strata, Sudbury (Ontario), Rathbun Lake (Ontario), Okiep and elsewhere - the Insizwa complex - the Uitkomst intrusion - the Munni Munni complex in W.Australia - sulphides of the Curaca valley of Brazil, S.America - effects of metamorphism on metal ratios - lithology, petrography and geochemistry of mafic rocks and associated ores - magma mixing, fractionation trends, replenishment of magma chambers - many references.
*****
GRIMSEY,EJ and NEUSS,I (editors) (1996) Nickel '96, Mineral to Market. Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Publ. 6/96, 310pp.
Multiauthor review volume on the Ni mining and refining business - Ni deposits, Ni mining, metallurgy and metal refining (42/42 items in MINLIB) - based on a conference held in Kalgoorlie, 27-29 November 1996 - the titles of the papers immediately indicate that at least 12 are concerned with Ni laterites as Ni ± Co ores - case histories of Ni mines - mineral economics - mineralogy - mafic-ultramafic rocks - four papers on the geology of komatiite-hosted Ni deposits in W.Australia - layered intrusions - Ni Cu PGE mineralization in various parts of the world - geophysical exploration - geochemical exploration - four papers specifically on the nature of Ni laterite deposits - petrography, ore textures, gangue mineralogy, process mineralogy of Ni deposits - pyrometallurgy (4 papers) and hydrometallurgy (4 papers) - flotation processes - Ni mattes.
*****
HOATSON,DM, WALLACE,DA, SUN,S-S, MACIAS,LF, SIMPSON,CJ and KEAYS,RR (1992) Petrology and platinum-group-element geochemistry of Archaean layered mafic-ultramafic intrusions, west Pilbara block, Western Australia. AGSO Bull. 242, 319pp. plus map.
W.Australia - major review of mafic-ultramafic layered intrusions and PGE mineralization in the western Pilbara block - geochemistry - petrography and photomicrographs - trace elements - the large, elaborate and elegant separate map sheet by Hoatson (1991) includes maps of Maitland, Mount Scholl and Munni Munni (1:20,000 scale) and a regional map at 1:100,000, plus a brief summary of nine mafic-ultramafic layered intrusions - the Munni Munni complex, age dated at 2925 Ma, contains an appreciable known resource of PGE and Au - history of science - PGE in Australia - maps - regional metallogeny - local geology, stratigraphy and age dates - remote sensing - Landsat imagery - summary of intrusives not covered by this study (pp.17-18: Balla Balla complex, Dingo complex, Gidley granophyre and Sherlock Bay complex) - detailed field geology - geophysics - magnetic and gravity maps - Munni Munni complex (pp.19-91) - cumulates - ultramafic and gabbroic units - sulphides and chromite at Munni Munni - mixing of orthopyroxenite and norite (p.30) - igneous layering - dykes - websterite, dunite, lherzolite and clinopyroxenite - chromitite (p.45) - inverted pigeonite in gabbronorite - anorthositic facies - mineral chemistry - summary of EPM data - Cr spinel - Fe Ti oxides - pyroxenes - SEM images - PGM at Munni Munni - cooperite and sperrylite - native Pt - braggite, platarsite, potarite, michenerite, atheneite, temagamite, telluropalladinite (p.69) - geochemical exploration - variations in Cu Ni Pt Pd Au Ir - Se Cs Rb Sr Zr - Mount Scholl complex (pp.92-100), located 22 km south of Karratha on the northern coast - metagabbro and metaperidotite - Radio Hill complex (28 km south of Karratha, 14 km north of Munni Munni) - sulphides and PGE mineralization - general positive trend in plot of Pt + Pd versus S - the Maitland complex - sulphidic pegmatoidal melagabbro (p.119) - Andover complex, in part of the Roebourne syncline - chemistry of the intrusive rocks (p.141 on) - Nd isotopes, Sr isotopes - petrogenesis - two-pyroxene geothermometry - S isotopes - PGE patterns - remote sensing (pp.167-177) - bibliography - geochemical analysis - appendices of EPM data.
*****
The huge Chuqicamata Cu mine, the largest known Cu orebody - porphyry Cu deposits of northern Chile - S.America - structural geology - age dates - the West fault system controlled the initial intrusions (probably at 36-33 Ma), mineralization (last major hydrothermal event at 31 Ma) and post-mineral brecciation and offset - hydrothermal alteration - potassic alteration affects all porphyry bodies (the East, West, Banco and Fine texture porphyries comprise the Chuqui porphyry complex) - albitization - sulphide mineralization - maps - local geology - reserves and production - petrography and photomicrographs - field geology - ore textures - maps and sections of the orebody - fluid inclusions - chalcopyrite - bornite - digenite - molybdenite - geochemistry - distribution maps for metals - Cu - Mo - Zn - arsenic - supergene enrichment (the largest example in the world) - chalcocite and covellite - age dates - development of the mineralization.
*****
PAN,Y and FLEET,ME (1995) The late Archean Hemlo gold deposit, Ontario, Canada: a review and synthesis. Ore Geology Reviews 9, 455-488.
Hemlo Au deposit, Ontario, Canada - review - late Archean Hemlo- Heron Bay greenstone belt of the Wawa subprovince - the belt, representing an ancient volcanic arc, has been subject to 2 episodes of regional metamorphism, 3 main pulses of granitoid plutonism and 4 generations of structures ascribable to 2 major deformational events - local geology - the second (main) regional metamorphism was generally near the greenschist- amphibolite transition, with middle amphibolite peak grade on the margins and the central axis of the belt - the Au deposit is in this mid-amphibolite central zone - the main orebody contains ~80 MT of ore of average grade 7.7 ppm, and is 2900 m on strike, 1300 m down-dip, and 3-45 m thick - sporadic additional mineralization lies to the west - the main orebody is in a regional shear zone, between structurally subjacent felsic rocks and overlying metasediments - geochemistry, hydrothermal alteration, fluid inclusions, O isotopes, age dates - geothermometry and geobarometry - of various proposed mineral deposit models, a multistage, late replacement model is preferred - petrography - modal mineralogy of the felsic bodies - porphyry dykes and sills - Rb versus Y + Nb discrimination plot places the Hemlo granitoids in the field of volcanic arc granites - trace elements - structural geology - paragenesis (extensive plot on p.468) - mineral listing (p.471): phases of Au Mo Sb As Hg Tl Te V and Ba - arsenic - useful, in-depth review paper.
*****
NARAYANASWAMI,S, ZAIUDDIN,M and RAMACHANDRA,AV (1960) Structural control and localization of gold-bearing lodes, Kolar gold field, India. Econ.Geol. 55, 1429-1459.
The Au deposits of the Kolar Au field, Karnataka, India - maps - structural geology - 15 parallel lodes have been mapped, including six Au -quartz lodes and 9 Au-quartz-sulphide lodes - structural and stratigraphic controls on metavolcanic-hosted vein systems - the Champion lode has been mined over a strike length of 5 miles, to an average vertical depth of 9,000 feet - the maximum depth reached is 10,200 feet (3,109 m), >7,200' below sea level - review - the sulphide- bearing Oriental and McTaggart lodes have recently been explored and developed in the north part of the field - lodes lie along stratigraphic contacts between competent beds of granular, fibrous or massive amphibolite and schistose amphibolite - they consist of en echelon quartz vein zones in altered wallrock of diopside, hornblende, cummingtonite, epidote and biotite, flanked by thick micaceous alteration zones - native Au - pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite, galena - pyrite, scheelite and magnetite - pay zones which cross the main lodes are localized in dilatant zones near en echelon cross folds and associated en echelon faults - the deposits lie in a narrow greenstone belt, 50 miles north-south and 2-3 miles wide - Au mining in the Kolar dates back >1,000 years, and took place in Tipu Sultan's regime in Mysore in the 1780s - to date, >40 MT (long T) of ore have been crushed to yield almost 23 million oz of fine Au (metric production of ~40.6 MT grading ~17.6 ppm, or 715 T Au)- the mines were nationalized in 1956 (by the Mysore state government) - history of mining, emphasizing recent developments - modern exploration and mining began in 1871, involving British firms - from 1889 to 1932 there were 5 operating mining companies, dropping to 4 in 1932, operating the entire lease area of 23 square miles (60 km2) - good map of the lodes (p.1442) - names of the Au-quartz lodes (Muscoom, Champion, Mundy's..) and others (7 sulphidic lodes known as the West Reefs [McTaggart, Oriental..], and the `New graphite- sulphide- quartz lode F' - petrography - sulphides and oxides are <1% of the matter of the quartz lodes, with galena the most common sulphide - hydrothermal alteration - fold styles - Au tenor of lodes - 28 references.
*****
Grenville province - review of many mines and deposits in the Renfrew region of eastern Ontario, Canada - industrial minerals - metals - topography, local geology, metasediments, magmatism - Paleozoic limestones along the Bonnechere river below Eganville - apatite at such sites as Turner's Island in Lake Clear, Sebastopol township (pp.18-19) - the beryl pegmatite in Lyndoch township (concession 15, lot 23, pp.20-22 and 97-98) - corundum deposits (pp.25-37) including Craig (Craigmont) in Raglan township and the Gutz Farm in Brudenell township - feldspar deposits - Au occurrences - graphite deposits including the Black Donald mine in Brougham township (pp.43-47) - graphite in Lyndoch and other townships - Fe deposits such as the Caldwell, Bluff Point and Williams mines (Bagot township), the Radnor mine (Grattan township), the McNab mine (McNab township) and others - limestone, dolomite and marble of Paleozoic and Grenville ages - the dolomite deposit in Ross township used in Mg metal refining (pp.65-66) - the Pidgeon process - marl occurrences - mica deposits - Mo (molybdenite) occurrences - the Zenith molybdenite mine (lot 28, concession 4, Bagot township) - Quilty Mo prospect (Blithfield township) - the Hunt mine, Charron prospect and O'Brien mine - the Spain mine in Griffith township - McCoy Mo property, Lyndoch township - nepheline syenite and nepheline gneiss - pyrite deposit at the Caldwell mine, Blithfield township - limestone quarries - celestite deposit in Bagot township (concession 10, lot 7, known since 1888, first mined in 1918) - the Renfrew Zn prospect in Admaston township - with appendix (p.120 on) on occurrences in Nipissing district: feldspar in Murchison township, the Boudreau mica mine in Clancy township, and mica in Dickens township - the `Ruby mine' (garnet occurrence in Ashby township, p.126) - index.
*****
BARLOW,AE (1915) Corundum, its Occurrence, Distribution, Exploitation, and Uses. Geol.Surv.Canada Memoir 57, 377pp.
A review of the nature, occurrences and uses of corundum, with emphasis on the nepheline syenite association of corundum in the Bancroft district of the Central Metasedimentary Belt - petrography, photomicrographs - with examples from the Grenville province of Ontario, Canada - syenitic, dioritic and gabbroic host rocks - scapolite and nepheline often accompany or replace the feldspars - Haliburton - history of science - gemstones - history of corundum in USA and Canada - Craigmont - Carlow township - contrasts with deposits in N.Carolina and Georgia - summary of the geology and mineralogy of the Ontario localities (pp.35-40) - Monteagle township - corundum syenites: craigmontite and raglanite - colour map (opp. p.57) is a useful location map of corundum-bearing rocks, including township names over a wide region - corundum-bearing anorthosites - Dungannon township, east of Bancroft - York River area - photomicrographs - Blue Mountain area - Monmouth and Glamorgan townships - monmouthite, craigmontite and congressite (pp.73-76) - mineral listing (p.91) - soadlite - crystal habit of corundum (up to 8 inches / 20 cm long) - corundum is often rimmed by muscovite mica - zircon, eucolite / eudialyte - dark green spinel, identified with gahnite - corundum as an abrasive - origin and occurrence (pp.155-177) - world occurrences (p.178 onwards) such as: Canada - Methuen-Burleigh and Lanark-Frontenac occurrences (pp.188-192) - USA, including Massachusetts, New York (Cortlandt complex) and ** Montana (pp.212-215) - Colorado, Connecticut, California, USA - other states - Russia (pp.229-234) - USSR - Kola peninsula - kyschtymite - whole-rock analyses - Turkey - Germany and elsewhere in Europe - Scotland, UK - ** S.Africa and Madagascar - India, Sri Lanka and Burma (pp.255-275) - Coimbatore area, Tamil Nadu - Sivamalai - southern Karnataka - Australia - synthetic corundum - mining and milling - Burgess mines - Craigmont area - Craig mine in Raglan township (map opp. p.300) - plumasite and umptekite (p.298) - Robillard mountain - history of mining - plates with outcrop pictures - field geology - references - index.
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Book with colour maps providing a valuable review of the geology, metallogeny and mineral deposits of Afghanistan - Soviet and Afghan scientists have identified within the country 21 metallogenic zones, including 37 ore districts with 1,428 mineral deposits, occurrences and showings - stratigraphy and local geology - the oldest units are of Archean to lower Proterozoic age - later Proterozoic and Phanerozoic units - Vendian to Cambrian rocks - Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian units - Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary and Quaternary strata - magmatism (pp.10-12) - structural geology and tectonics - notes on many mines and deposits - energy resources - petroleum and natural gas - the Karakum and Afghan-Tajik basins - coal deposits - Fe deposits such as Hajigak - maps and sections - Cu deposits - the Afghan Cu belt includes some major deposits, such as Aynak, Jawkhar and Darband - sediment-hosted Cu at Aynak in Loghar province - skarn and hornfels at the Kundalyan Cu deposit - Shaida - Cu Pb Zn mineralization in skarns at Darra-i-Nur, Kandahar province - Obatu-Shela bauxite deposit - Al Mo W Bi - Sn associated with skarns, fault zones and pegmatites - Kharnak and Duwalak Hg occurrences - Be Li Ta Nb Cs Rb in pegmatites - beryllium - beryl - Darra-i-Pech and other pegmatite fields, 12 of them with identified Li mineralization (Pasghushta, Paskhi, Yaryhgul, Jamanak, Tsamgal, etc) - Pachighram field - the Khanneshin carbonatite volcano - REE - U - Au deposits, mostly in Badakshan and Ghasni provinces - Zarkashan (skarns), Vekadur, Ahankashan, etc - industrial minerals such as fluorite, barite and celestite - ceramics and refractories - talc, magnesite, graphite - muscovite mica, asbestos, halite - gemstones (pp.60-61) such as corundum (ruby), emerald, kunzite, tourmaline and lapis lazuli - quartz, limestone, marble - mineral production - alphabetical tabulation of selected deposits.
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SAUVE,P, IMREH,L and TRUDEL,P (1993) Description des gîtes d'or de la région de Val-d'Or. MERQ MM 91-03, 178pp. plus location map (in Fr.).
Quebec, Canada - a review of the Au deposits of the Val d'Or area of the Archean Abitibi greenstone belt - the 1:100,000 scale location map extends east from the Norlartic, Marban and Callahan deposits, past Siscoe, Sigma and Lamaque, past the Bourlamaque batholith and the Louvem / Louvicourt area to the Bevcon pluton, and thus to the Vauquelin-Pershing batholith and the Croinor deposit - maps, local geology, structural geology - notes on many mines and deposits - greenschist facies regional metamorphism - mafic sills - calc-alkaline intrusions - stratigraphy - maps - shear zones - age dates - summary table for 22 deposits (pp.11-12) - summary for each mine, with maps, sections, etc - history of mining - whole-rock analyses - diorite - hydrothermal alteration - the Sullivan mine - structural controls - veins - Perron and Beaufor mines - Ferderber (Belmoral) and Dumont (Bras d'Or) mines - Courvan (Bussieres or Cournor) mine - Louvicourt Gold Field mine - Croinor mine - Lucien C. Beliveau (New Pascalis) mine - Callahan property - Wesdome deposit - Kiena mine - Marban mine - Greene-Stabell (Jacola) mine - Brosnor (Brosnan) mine - Akasaba mine - mineralogy - tonalite - QFP - the Bevcon mine's veins (pp.43-49) include telluride phases, such as BiTe, tellurobismuthite and calaverite - paragenesis - quartz, tourmaline, ankerite, calcite - pyrite, scheelite, fuchsite green mica, etc - the rare ore minerals at Sigma include hessite, calaverite, krennerite and tellurobismuthite - native Au - petzite is a trace phase at the Siscoe mine - leucotonalite, gabbro, granophyre - mass balance study at Sigma-2 (p.80) - minerals at the Wesdome property include barite, strontianite, altaite, Zn chromite and argentopentlandite - tetradymite at the Shawkey mine - mackinawite, hedleyite and native Bi in the Stabell vein - trace phases at the Akasaba mine include argentopentlandite, mackinawite, pentlandite, violarite, cobaltite, hedleyite, hessite, coloradoite and electrum - arsenopyrite -rich mineralization at the Chimo mine - bibliography.
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Quaternary geology - northwest Ontario, Canada - 14C age dates by AMS SIMS (IsoTrace Lab) - maps - the Rainy River lowland - palynology - microfossils - fossil insects - history of glacial lake Agassiz - discovery of several fossil localities during mapping - wood samples of the Moorhead Phase are 14C age dated at 10,800 to 9,900 BP - the transgression to the Emerson Phase apparently began about 9,900 BP - sketch map of major moraines in northwest Ontario, around, west and northwest of Lake Nipigon - stratigraphy - plant macrofossils - fossil Coleoptera - fossil molluscs - history of deglaciation - the Rainy River basin underwent deglaciation between 11,700 and 10,800 BP.
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MORRIS,TF, McANDREWS,JH and SEYMOUR,KL (1993) Glacial Lake Arkona - Whittlesey transition near Leamington, Ontario: geology, plant and muskox fossils. Can.J.Earth Sci 30, 2436-2447.
Quaternary geology - southwest Ontario, Canada - lake sediments deposited in glacial lake Maumee at the end of the Port Bruce Stade by northward-retreating ice - proglacial subaquatic fans near Leamington - some fans were buried by glacial till and glaciolacustrine materials - lake levels fell to the levels of lake Arkona and lake Ypsilanti - 14C age dates on bone and organic matter - wood - AMS SIMS dates (IsoTrace lab) on bones of shrub ox, muskox and bison - VPal - palynology, microfossils, paleoclimatology - location map - the Bondi site, northwest of Leamington, east of Olinda on the north side of concession road IV - paleoecology - line drawings of bone samples - the muskox sample was dated at 11,580±70 BP, bison at only 290±50 BP - plant macrofossils.
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Data on 1,376 newly classified meteorites, including 658 from Antarctica, 409 from Africa and 262 from Oman - 3 from other countries of the Middle East / Asia - 31 from N.America, 7 from S.America, 3 from Australia and 3 from Europe - China - Libya - USA - this huge assemblage of new meteorites includes just 11 falls - several very rare meteorites, including 5 Martian meteorites (SNC achondrites) and six lunar meteorites - the Agoult and Aoufous eucrites from Morocco, north Africa - 657 ANSMET finds - the small (6.1 g) Bluewing 001 eucrite from Pershing county, Nevada, USA - Dar al Gani meteorites from Libya, north Africa, including DaG 665 (polymict ureilite), DaG 669/671 (howardite), DaG 684 (eucrite), DaG 868 (ureilite), DaG 876 (SNC achondrite, a basaltic shergottite, 6.216 g) - Dergaon (Assam, northeast India, fall, 02 March 2001, H5, 12.5 kg) - fall dates of the Devri-Khera and Lohawat meteorites, which (p.A295) both fell in Rajasthan on the night of 30 October 1994, separated by several hours and about 500 km - the 174-g Dhofar 081, a lunar meteorite found in Oman in 1999 - the Dhofar 125 acapulcoite - Dhofar 280 (251.2 g, lunar meteorite) - Dhofar 287 (154 g, lunar meteorite) - Dhofar 300 (eucrite) - Dhofar 312 (acapulcoite) - the 16.55-kg D'Orbigny angrite, found in Argentina in 1979 - the Gahanna iron meteorite from Ohio, USA (found circa 1950, recognized 1995) - Great Sand Sea 020 (H chondrite melt rock from Egypt) - Gujba (Nigeria, west Africa, a Bencubbin-like meteorite with metal nodules, possibly a substantial mass, fell 03 April 1984) - Itqiy (Western Sahara, ungrouped enstatite-rich meteorite) - Kharga (IVA iron from Egypt) - Korra Korrabes H3 chondrite, 1996 find, about 40 kg in total, from Namibia, S.W. Africa - Northwest Africa 479 (lunar meteorite, 156 g) - Northwest Africa 480 (SNC, basaltic shergottite, 28 g) - Northwest Africa 482 (lunar meteorite, 1.015 kg) - Northwest Africa 753 (R3.7 Rumuruti chondrite, 12 kg, probably from the Kem Kem region) - Northwest Africa 773 (lunar meteorite) - Northwest Africa 817 (SNC, nakhlite, 104 g) - 262 meteorites from Oman - Sayh al Uhaymir 094 (Oman, SNC) - Sayama CM2, Japan.
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GROSSMAN,JN (2000) The Meteoritical Bulletin, No.84, 2000 August. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 35, supplement, A199-225.
Data on 1,341 newly classified meteorites, including 842 from Antarctica, 341 from Africa and 66 from Australia - 48 from Asia and the Middle East (including 42 from the Arabian peninsula) - 38 from N.America, 4 from Europe and 2 from S.America - there are details on 11 recent falls - these are Bilanga, Devri-Khera, Dhoumine, Guangmingshan, Kitchener (Ontario, Canada), Kobe, Leighlinbridge, Sabrum, Songyuan, Tagish Lake (northern BC, Canada) and Vissannapeta - the rare items include four SNC achondrites and three lunar meteorites - there are 11 iron meteorites - the Martian meteorites are Dar al Gani 670/735, Dhofar 019, Los Angeles and Sayh al Uhaymir 005/008 - the lunar meteorites are Northwest Africa 032, Dhofar 025 and Dhofar 026 - the Attica H4 chondrite (Kansas, USA) - the Bilanga diogenite from Burkina Faso, west Africa - Devri-Khera (Rajasthan, India, L6, a fall on 30 October 1994) - the Dar al Gani meteorites of Libya - the Dhofar meteorites of Oman - the Djoumine H5-H6 chondrite (Tunisia) - the Dos Cabezas and Golden Rule L5 chondrites (Arizona, USA) - 153 Frontier Mountain meteorites from Antarctica - Glenrothes H5 (Scotland, UK, Europe) - Guangmingshan (H5 from Liaoning in China - a 1996 fall) - Indianopolis iron (Minas Gerais, Brazil, a IIAB found in gravels of the Araguari river in 1989) - the Kitchener L6 (p.A207) - Kobe (CK4 carbonaceous chondrite, fell in Japan, 1999) - Leighlinbridge L6 from Ireland (1999 fall) - Los Angeles shergottite - 39 meteorites from Oman - 3 meteorites from the Rub'al-Khali, Saudi Arabia, found in the 1950s - Sabrum (Tripura, northeast India, a 1999 fall, LL6) - Saharan meteorites from Libya, Morocco and elsewhere - the Tagish Lake C2 (an estimated 5-10 kg recovered from a strewnfield of at least 16x3 km, pp.A218-219) - summary of recent ANSMET finds.
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