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Lac Des Îles Igneous Complex
The Lac des Îles igneous complex of northwestern Ontario, Canada is a layered gabbroic intrusion which is the host for the largest palladium orebody in Canada. The orebody is currently being mined as a combined open pit and underground operation by North American Palladium. The complex is located in the Canadian Shield some 85 kilometers northwest of Thunder Bay, Ontario and Lake Superior at 49.10.00 N 089.36.00 W.Geological Survey of Canada, World Minerals Geoscience Database Project, Entry #512 The complex includes , |
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Canada, it is Canada's most populous province, with 38.3 percent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province by total area (after Quebec). Ontario is Canada's fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included. It is home to the nation's capital city, Ottawa, and the nation's most populous city, Toronto, which is Ontario's provincial capital. Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, and Quebec to the east and northeast, and to the south by the U.S. states of (from west to east) Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Almost all of Ontario's border with the United St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samarium–neodymium Dating
Samarium–neodymium dating is a radiometric dating method useful for determining the ages of rocks and meteorites, based on the alpha decay of the long-lived samarium isotope () to the stable radiogenic neodymium isotope (). Neodymium isotope ratios together with samarium-neodymium ratios are used to provide information on age information and the source of igneous melts. It is sometimes assumed that at the moment when crustal material is formed from the mantle the neodymium isotope ratio depends only on the time when this event occurred, but thereafter it evolves in a way that depends on the new ratio of samarium to neodymium in the crustal material, which will be different from the ratio in the mantle material. Samarium–neodymium dating allows us to determine when the crustal material was formed. The usefulness of Sm–Nd dating stems from the fact that these two elements are rare earth elements and are thus, theoretically, not particularly susceptible to partitioning during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merenskyite
Merenskyite is a rare telluride / bismuthinide mineral with the chemical formula . It is an opaque white to light gray metallic mineral that occurs as inclusions within other minerals such as chalcopyrite. It crystallizes in the trigonal crystal system. Merenskyite was first described in 1966 for an occurrence in the Merensky Reef of the Western Bushveld Igneous Complex, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ..., and named for South African geologist Hans Merensky (1871–1952). References {{Reflist Telluride minerals Bismuthide minerals Palladium minerals Platinum minerals Trigonal minerals Minerals in space group 164 Minerals described in 1966 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Braggite
Braggite is a sulfide mineral of platinum, palladium and nickel with chemical formula: (Pt, Pd, Ni)S. It is a dense (specific gravity of 10), steel grey, opaque mineral which crystallizes in the tetragonal crystal system. It is the central member in the platinum group end-members cooperite (mineral), cooperite and vysotskite. It was first described in 1932 for an occurrence in the Bushveld Igneous Complex of South Africa. Its name came from William Henry Bragg (1862–1942) and his son, William Lawrence Bragg (1890–1971). It was the first mineral that was discovered with the assistance of X rays. It occurs as magmatic segregations in Layered intrusion, layered igneous intrusions such as Bushveld, the Stillwater igneous complex, the Lac des Îles igneous complex, the island of Rùm intrusive, the Great Dyke and many others. It is one of the most common platinum group minerals. Composition The braggite composition series is between the platinum rich cooperite and palladium rich ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrite
The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue give it a superficial resemblance to gold, hence the well-known nickname of ''fool's gold''. The color has also led to the nicknames ''brass'', ''brazzle'', and ''Brazil'', primarily used to refer to pyrite found in coal. The name ''pyrite'' is derived from the Greek (), 'stone or mineral which strikes fire', in turn from (), 'fire'. In ancient Roman times, this name was applied to several types of stone that would create sparks when struck against steel; Pliny the Elder described one of them as being brassy, almost certainly a reference to what we now call pyrite. By Georgius Agricola's time, , the term had become a generic term for all of the sulfide minerals. Pyrite is usually found associated with other sulfides or oxides in quartz v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite ( ) is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral. It has the chemical formula CuFeS2 and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale. Its streak is diagnostic as green-tinged black. On exposure to air, chalcopyrite tarnishes to a variety of oxides, hydroxides, and sulfates. Associated copper minerals include the sulfides bornite (Cu5FeS4), chalcocite (Cu2S), covellite (CuS), digenite (Cu9S5); carbonates such as malachite and azurite, and rarely oxides such as cuprite (Cu2O). Is rarely found in association with native copper. Chalcopyrite is a conductor of electricity. Etymology The name chalcopyrite comes from the Greek words , which means copper, and ', which means striking fire. It was sometimes historically referred to as "yellow copper". Identification Chalcopyrite is often confused with pyrite and gold since all three of these minerals have a yell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pentlandite
Pentlandite is an iron–nickel sulfide with the chemical formula . Pentlandite has a narrow variation range in Ni:Fe but it is usually described as having a Ni:Fe of 1:1. It also contains minor cobalt, usually at low levels as a fraction of weight. Pentlandite forms isometric crystals, but it is normally found in massive granular aggregates. It is brittle with a hardness of 3.5–4 and specific gravity of 4.6–5.0 and is non-magnetic. It has a yellowish bronze color. Pentlandite is the most important source of mined nickel. Name and discovery It is named after the Irish scientist Joseph Barclay Pentland (1797–1873), who first noted the mineral. Paragenesis Pentlandite is the most common terrestrial nickel sulfide. It typically forms during cooling of a sulfide melt. These sulfide melts, in turn, are typically formed during the evolution of a silicate melt. Because Ni is a chalcophile-like element, it has preference for (i.e. it "partitions into") sulfide phases. In s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrrhotite
Pyrrhotite is an iron sulfide mineral with the formula Fe(1-x)S (x = 0 to 0.2). It is a nonstoichiometric variant of FeS, the mineral known as troilite. Pyrrhotite is also called magnetic pyrite, because the color is similar to pyrite and it is weakly magnetic. The magnetism decreases as the iron content increases, and troilite is non-magnetic.Vaughan, D. J.; Craig, J. R. "Mineral Chemistry of Metal Sulfides" Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1978. . Structure Pyrrhotite exists as a number of polytypes of hexagonal or monoclinic crystal symmetry; several polytypes often occur within the same specimen. Their structure is based on the NiAs unit cell. As such, Fe occupies an octahedral site and the sulfide centers occupy trigonal prismatic sites. Materials with the NiAs structure often are non-stoichiometric because they lack up to 1/8th fraction of the metal ions, creating vacancies. One of such structures is pyrrhotite-4C (Fe7S8). Here "4" indicates that iron vacanci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to react with air under standard conditions because a passivation layer of nickel oxide forms on the surface that prevents further corrosion. Even so, pure native nickel is found in Earth's crust only in tiny amounts, usually in ultramafic rocks, and in the interiors of larger nickel–iron meteorites that were not exposed to oxygen when outside Earth's atmosphere. Meteoric nickel is found in combination with iron, a reflection of the origin of those elements as major end products of supernova nucleosynthesis. An iron–nickel mixture is thought to compose Earth's outer and inner cores. Use of nickel (as natural meteoric nickel–iron alloy) has been traced as far back as 3500 BCE. Nickel was first isolated and classified a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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