An ore shoot is a mass of

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...

deposited in a vein. The ore shoot consists of the most valuable part of the ore deposit. An ore shoot is the area of concentration containing primary ore along the veins present in the rocks.

Veins

Along an ore shoot, there is a rich gathering of different minerals in a

vein Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenat ...

. The veins resemble a pipe or a chimney in structure. Veins are displaced mainly vertically oriented but also horizontal with large veins extending approximately horizontally and vertically. The metal contents in ore shoots are distributed in areas that vary in deposit sizes.

Sizes and structure

The circumference of deposit sizes can range from a few meters, to many kilometres. A structure may consist of multiple ore shoots with some veins or

lode In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fissure (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock. The current meaning (ore vein) dates from the 1 ...

s being as thick as , and extending to thousands of feet horizontally and vertically.

Locations

There are complex stratigraphic historical parameters required in understanding how ore shoots are formed. Rocks go through numerous

ductile Ductility is a mechanical property commonly described as a material's amenability to drawing (e.g. into wire). In materials science, ductility is defined by the degree to which a material can sustain plastic deformation under tensile stres ...

and

brittle A material is brittle if, when subjected to stress, it fractures with little elastic deformation and without significant plastic deformation. Brittle materials absorb relatively little energy prior to fracture, even those of high strength. Br ...

deformation events before they become mineralized. The different locations of ore shoots in Australia are determined by investigating the internal architecture of the rock pile. The longest shoots occur on the flanks of the

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

flows with the largest lateral extent. The geometry and internal structure of the basalt flows is important for predicting the likelihood and extent of the ore shoots.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ore Shoot Ore deposits Mining terminology Geology