Deposit types/Copper, Uranium, Gold

Olympic Dam type (iron oxide copper-gold-uranium)

A huge hematite-rich breccia body with copper, uranium, gold and rare-earth minerals.

What it is

A huge hematite-rich breccia body with copper, uranium, gold and rare-earth minerals.1

How it forms

Breccia filled a deep, narrow graben in alkali granite. Copper and iron sulphides and oxides were deposited in the breccia matrix and veins.1

Host rocks

Brecciated Proterozoic alkali granite, felsic volcanics and hematite iron formation.1

Where it forms

Narrow graben in a broad arch.1

How old

About 1,500 Ma1

How geologists look for it

Local gravity high from dense iron formation.1

Mines of this type

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Story cards

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Mines

An example ofOlympic DamSee Olympic Dam, an example of olympic dam type (iron oxide copper-gold-uranium).1

Sources

  1. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

Copper drill-hole columns over South Australia on a satellite mapData storyUnder South AustraliaDrill holes · South AustraliaCopper drill-hole columns over the Cobar Basin on a satellite map of New South WalesData storyUnder New South WalesDrill holes · New South WalesHistory of miningThe first miners: ochre, flint, copper and silver25000 BC-AD 400History of miningUranium: from silver mine waste to the atomic age1789-2025

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Pictures: Timna in de Negevwoestijn; rotspartij "de zuilen van Salomo", Poll, Willem van de / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); The laboratories of Marie and Pierre Curie, Paris: room where experiments on uranium ore took place. Photograph, ca. 1900., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0).