I* ' USING CURRENT PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY of SMALL PARTICLE
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éZ4 PFP c .i* THE ORIGIN OF ROCKS Particulate Fluids Processing Centre AND MINERAL DEPOSITS ' USING CURRENT PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY OF SMALL PARTICLE SYSTEMS by Mineral Industry Consultants Assnciation Founded 1980 John Elliston AUSTRALIAN PREYIEW EDITION This project is proiidly supported by An Australian Government Initiative Ausindustry, REMARKABLE OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE FOR EVERYONE Use of the current physical chemistry of small particle systems has provided simple and logical explanations for over 750 records of the minoráis, rock textures and structures illustrated in this e-book. This considerable body of observational data provides conclusive evidence that the crustal rocks and mineral deposits of today were derived from ancient sediments in which the small charged particles had the same properties and were subjected to the same diagenetic processes as those occurring in large accumulations of basin sediments today. The significant results of this extensivo research can be used to advantage by everyone. EXPLORATION MANAGERS STUDENTS Successful mineral exploration cannot be Explanations for geological phenomena such as achieved without using appropriate high-quality the occurrence of fossiis within granito feidspars geophysical, geochemical techniques, and best and the details of all inorganic structures and surveying, sampling, and drilling prácticos. textures preserved in the rocks and mineral However, it has been shown that success ratos deposits are straightforward, satisfactory and and cost effectiveness can be improved up to easy to understand. With the current physical 300% or more by recognising the relationship of chemistry of small particle systems in use you prospectivo source rock volumes to ore localising will find teaching or professional work as a structures and host rocks. The challenge of geologist satisfying and rewarding. developing new resource remains, but understanding the ore forming process makes GEOCHEMISTS, GEOPHYSICISTS, AND the task much easier. EARTH SCIENCE PROFESSIONALS FIELO AND MINE GEOLOGISTS Most professionals who can retain an impartial and objective view will wonder why geologists Interpreting outcrops, logging drill core, selecting generally have not realised that the nature and material for assay, understanding the successive properties of ancient particle systems could be deposition of ore minoráis (paragenetic relevant to the formation of rocks and mineral sequence) and the nature of their distribution in deposits. Consideration of the static and large mineralised zones is relatively simple if the dynamic interactions between charged particles ore forming processes are understood. in these ancient systems and between the particles and the fluids that surrounded them is ACADEMIC GEOLOGISTS clearly a simple and logical approach to The use of current physico-chemical principies to understanding their origin. define the diagenetic processes by which the rocks and mineral deposits were formed now ANYONEINTERESTED IN THE WAY próvido a magnificent opportunity to make teaching of geological sciences attractive to THAT ROCKS ARE FORMED students. Their interest can be captured by interest in attractive granito facings, bench tops, providing realistic and logical answers to and in the colourful and decorativo stoneware questions of génesis for all the inorganic patterns that have intrigued us for years wili structures and textures preserved in the rocks. sharply increase. Details of modern physical The need for many conflicting or dubious chemistry and the geological processes hypotheses is eliminated, and the teaching of involved can still be left to competent straightforward simpler principies will attract professionals but simple explanations of their many more curious young students to geology origin are now available for school pupiis and courses. Many exciting new avenues are now anyone who is interested. opon for post-graduate research. 1 are blinded by what we think we know; disbelieve (your present convictions) if yOU can. " Samuel Warren Carey, 1911 - 2002. This Australian Preview Edition and the book on CD herewith has been produced by:- ELLISTON RESEARCH ASSOCIATES PTY LTD, All rights reserved 10 (B) The Bulwark, CASTLECRAG, N. S.W. 2068 © John Elliston, 2003. Except as provided by the ISBN 978-0-9804081-0-2 Copyright Act 1968 no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval position, or transmitted in First printing 2007 any form or by any means without the prior written Printed in Australia by: - permission of the publisher. Dobson's Printing Pty Ltd, 72-74 Gibbes Street, Chatswood, NSW. 2067 2 An introauction to: - The Origin of Rocíes ana Mineral Deposits - using current physical chemistry of small particle systems by John Elliston from sediments has been identified. It contains 756 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE photographs of ore and rock textures as examples of The technical objective of this research from the the factual data that support the economically outset has been to define the physical and chemical important and far-reaching new conclusions. mechanisms by which mineral deposits were Over a long period of time the central hypothesis is formed. An understanding of these processes can be possibly the most rigorously tested new development used to achieve higher success rates and cost in the earth sciences in Australia's history. effectiveness in mineral exploration. THE NATURE OF THIS BOOK- THE CENTRAL HYPOTHESIS LENGTH RECORD OF ROCK AND The central hypothesis is that the features and ORE MINERAL TEXTURES structures observed in all rocks and mineral deposits that have ultimately been derived from ancient The research is interdisciplinary. It depends as much sediments (including porphyroids, metamorphics, on current developments in surface chemistry, and granites) must reflect and be consistent with the rheology, and colloid science as it does on factual principies of physical chemistry currently geological observations such as those recorded in established for small particle systems. the book. To colloid and surface chemists it appears This hypothesis has been tested by systematically logical that very large high-energy particle systems recording the observational data for a very wide like ancient natural sediments should exhibit the range of rocks and mineral deposits in different same rheological behaviour, particle interactions, geological environments. Each of these actual rock and chemical attributes as other particulate matter textures and structures has then been considered as that has been so thoroughly subjected to to whether or not .it is consistent with the experimentation and testing. composition, properties and behaviour of particulate For geologists, however, this approach is new. There precursors that could lithify or crystallise to result in has been no occasion in the past to apply the the minerals, shapes, patterns, structures and principies now established in colloid and surface textures now preserved in the rocks. chemistry to the origin of rocks and mineral deposits. The central hypothesis is fundamental in nature and The current knowledge of the physical chemistry of global in its application. The comprehensive inves• small particle systems did not exist when traditional tigation of the origin of rocks and mineral deposits geological assumptions about the origin of rocks and has extended over many years. A very large number mineral deposits were first made. of mine openings, drill cores, and specimens have been examined and features indicative of sediment The diagram on the opposite page indicates the mobility and colloidal processes during diagenesis growth of the very long history of development of have been recorded in approximately 6,500 photo• geological theory and the more recent independent graphs. Some 4,500 of these have been selected and growth of colloid and surface chemistry largely digitized during the preparation of progress reports. foUowing the pioneering work of Freundlich in 1936. Fourteen published and sixty-five unpublished Demarcation between specialised áreas of theoretical reports and scientific papers by the author of this geology and current colloid and surface chemistry book record details of how various geological has been called the "interdisciplinary barrier". This phenomena (such as framboids, oolites, or geodes) has been maintained in the present context of "Infor• result from physico-chemical processes and how the mation overload" by the real and increasing inability current principies of colloid and surface chemistry of scientists generally to keep abreast of relate to the reléase of ore minerals in various developments in disciplines other than their own. geological environments. In the earth sciences an opportunity has therefore This book represents an overview of the whole been left for a major advance in understanding the research program and brings together for the first origin of rocks and mineral deposits by applying the time sufficient Information to demónstrate that the principies of physical chemistry that relate to small origin of all rocks and mineral deposits derived charged particles and colloidal systems. 4 James Hutton, 1785 (provisional hypothesis) DATE 1800 GROWTH OF INDEPENDENT MAINSTREAM GROWTH OF EARTH SCIENCE COLLOID AND 1850 THEORY SURFACE CHEMISTRY Graham 1864 (confined to theory of (approximately one third of al! Solutions and behaviour physical chemistry not yet of silicate melts) applied in the earth sciences) 1900 Einstein Perrin 1910 1920 Peterfi 1930 CHEMISTS Freundlich