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9: Ore Deposits and Economic Minerals

  • Page ID
    17518
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    10.66.png
    Figure 9.1: Golden pyrite with silvery hematite from Elba Island, Italy. The specimen is 12 cm wide.

    KEY CONCEPTS

    • We mine many minerals from Earth.
    • Some ores are valued for their mineral properties, some for the elements they contain, and others because they contain valuable gems.
    • The best ore deposits are those containing large amounts of ore minerals.
    • The best metal ore minerals are those that contain large amounts of metals of value.
    • Most metallic ore minerals are native elements, sulfides, sulfosalts, oxides, or hydroxides.
    • Ore deposits are highly variable in nature and origin.
    • The most important kinds of ore deposits are magmatic, hydrothermal, and sedimentary.


    This page titled 9: Ore Deposits and Economic Minerals is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Dexter Perkins via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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