GL101 Chapter 20: Chapter 20 - Mineral and Energy Resources.docx
Document Summary
Mineral resources: canada has a rich supply, but no nation is completely self-sufficient, the mining industry is vital to the canadian economy (~ 8% of gdp, 3rd largest. Economic sector: canada is one of the world"s largest exporters of minerals and mineral products. Resources: materials held in reserve, useful to people, must be commercially available, two categories. Renewable resources: can be replenished over relatively short time spans, examples include: Non-renewable resources: significant deposits take millions of years to form - they occur in fixed quantities: Resources: some resources (i. e. groundwater) can be placed in either category, reserves: known deposits already identified and commercially extractable, known deposits: not yet commercially available. Hydrothermal deposits: hydrothermal deposits associated with igneous activity. Volcanogenic massive sulphide (vms: sediment-associated hydrothermal deposits. Sedimentary deposits: banded iron formations, sedimentary deposits. Important accumulations of metals are associated with magma that forms igneous rocks: some metals are enriched in magmas and concentrated during the cooling of the magma, gravitational settling.
