Deposit types/Manganese

Sedimentary manganese

Beds of manganese carbonate and oxide laid down in shallow sea around the rim of oxygen-poor basins.

What it is

Beds of manganese carbonate and oxide laid down in shallow sea around the rim of oxygen-poor basins.1

How it forms

Shallow, non-volcanic marine manganese deposits formed around the rims of oxygen-poor basins during sea-level rise. Carbonates lie basinward and oxides landward, set by the oxidation-reduction boundary. Weathering can upgrade the ore.1

Host rocks

Shallow marine carbonates, clay and glauconitic sand.1

Where it forms

Stable cratonic basins and margins.1

How old

Mostly in early Paleozoic, Jurassic and mid-Cretaceous anoxic events1

Story cards

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.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0.