Ore geology and industrial minerals. An introduction / Геология полезных ископаемых. Введение

'What is ore geology?' Unfortunately, it is not possible to give an unequivocal answer to this question if one wishes to go beyond saying that it is a branch of economic geology. The difficulty is that there are a number of distinctly different definitions of ore. A definition which has been current in capitalist economies for nearly a century runs as follows: 'Ore is a metalliferous mineral, or an aggregate of metalliferous minerals, more or less mixed with gangue, which from the standpoint of the miner can be won at a profit, or from the standpoint of the metallurgist can be treated at a profit. The test of yielding a metal or metals at a profit seems to be the only feasible one to employ.' Thus wrote J.F. Kemp in 1909. There are many similar definitions of ore which all emphasize (a) that it is material from which we extract a metal, and (b) that this operation must be a profit-making one. Economically mineable aggregates of ore mineralsare termed orebodies, oreshoots, ore deposits or ore reserves. <...>