Deposit types/Zinc, Lead

Sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) zinc-lead

Sheet-like beds of zinc and lead sulphide laid down with black shale in basins.

What it is

Sheet-like beds of zinc and lead sulphide laid down with black shale in basins.1,2

How it forms

Sulphide and sulphate minerals build up in layers with oxygen-poor (euxinic) marine mud in fault-bounded basins. Orebodies are a few tens of metres thick but may be spread over more than 1,000 m of strata.1,2

Host rocks

Black shale, siltstone, chert, dolostone and turbidites.1,2

Where it forms

Epicratonic embayments and intracratonic basins with fault-controlled half-grabens.1,2

How old

Middle Proterozoic (1,700 to 1,400 Ma) and Cambrian to Carboniferous1,2

Typical size

Orebodies up to a few tens of metres thick1,2

Mines of this type

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Mines

An example ofSullivan MineSee Sullivan Mine, an example of this deposit type.1An example ofRammelsberg mineSee Rammelsberg mine, an example of this deposit type.1An example ofRed DogSee Red Dog, an example of sedimentary exhalative (sedex) zinc-lead.1

Sources

  1. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey
  2. Mineral Deposit Models for Resource Assessment, Chapter N: Sedimentary Exhalative (Sedex) Zinc-Lead-Silver Deposit Model (SIR 2010-5070-N) 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.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Froth flotation and tailings by Nina111955, CC BY-SA 4.0; Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Kimberley, South Africa: miners and washing gear at the Bultfontein diamond mine. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0).