Polish sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposits associated with Zechstein sediments are one of the country’s most valuable natural resources and the basis for its copper industry. The paper presents the history of their research and current exploration. Although documented deposits and their identified resources are described and characterized, much attention is paid to areas located outside of them, including those where geological exploration is currently underway. The gradual depletion of shallow Cu–Ag reserves in the Lubin-Sieroszowice district and elsewhere in the world requires exploration for deeper-seated deposits. To expand resources, time span and scale of copper production in Poland, exploration and definition of new prospects is of great importance. Thirty-five prospective areas with hypothetical and speculative resources have been delineated in SW Poland, including the most prospective areas adjacent to the Cu–Ag Lubin-Sieroszowice deposit. The paper also focuses on those parts of the Fore-Sudetic Monocline where new copper deposits were recently identified. Their resources are described along with the methodology of establishing their boundaries, which differs from recommended Polish threshold parameters not taking into account the depths exceeding 1500 m. Intelligent modern mining and ore processing technologies are considered as a prerequisite for future profitable development of deposits at deeper levels.
1 Uni ver sity of War saw, Fac ulty of Ge ol ogy, ¯wirki i Wigury 93, 02-089 Warszawa, Po land Wierchowiec, J., Zieliñski, K., 2017. Or i gin of placer gold and other heavy min er als from flu vial Ce no zoic sed i ments in close prox im ity to Rote Fäule-re lated Au min er ali sa tion in the North Sudetic Trough, SW Po land. Geo log i cal Quar terly, 61 (1): 62-80, doi: 10.7306/gq.1315 De tailed mor pho log i cal and geo chem i cal stud ies of placer gold grains and other heavy min er als from Ce no zoic flu vial clastic sed i ments in the area of the Zimnik Creek drain age ba sin (North Sudetic Trough, Lower Silesia) al lowed the de scrip tion of their spe cific fea tures: shape and mor phol ogy, flat ness in dex, in ter nal tex tural fea tures and chem i cal com po si tion of the gold grains. It en ables an es ti ma tion of the dis tance from the source area and de ter mi na tion of the source of the ore min er ali sation, along with es tab lish ing the feeder ar eas for placer min er ali sa tion in clud ing Rote Fäule-re lated gold hosted by Rotliegend-Zechstein tran si tional sed i ments. The com par i son of the heavy min eral con tents of placer grains from the Zimnik Creek drain age ba sin makes it pos si ble to iden tify the area of or i gin for the gold par ti cles. The crys tal line Au-Ag-Pd-Hg (polymetallic) al loy grains of flu vial gold are as sumed to come from the tran si tional sed i ments be tween the Rotliegend and the Zechstein in the North Sudetic Ba sin. The mor pho log i cal and geo chem i cal fea tures of the polymetallic grains strongly sug gest that the grains from the up per course of the Zimnik Creek val ley sed i ments rep re sent what has eroded from the lo cal gold min er ali sa tion and this min er ali sa tion is prob a bly in the vi cin ity of the up stream sam pling site. The bi modal chem i cal com po si tion of the Au-Ag-Pd-Hg al loy grains with electrum and me dium-Ag grains (<15 wt.% Ag) found in the study area is typ i cal of the Rote Fäule and Kupferschiefer-re lated gold min er ali sa tion on the south ern side of the North Sudetic Trough and the Sieroszowice-Polkowice cop per min ing dis trict of the Fore-Sudetic Monocline. The study of the Ag con tents of placer grains from the Zimnik Creek drain age ba sin high lights the con trast be tween the placer gold grains de rived from Paleozoic orogenic gold min er ali sa tion in the Sudetes (typ i cally sim ple Au-Ag al loys con tain ing be tween 5 and 20 wt.% of Ag) and the one formed by the ox i diz ing chlo ride hy dro ther mal sys tems. The grains iden ti fied in this man ner as orig i nat ing from the ox idiz ing hy dro ther mal sys tem of the tran si tional zone can be dis tin guished from the placer gold de rived from other styles of min er ali sa tion, which are not Rote Fäule-re lated. It is par tic u larly im por tant con sid er ing the on go ing re con nais sance ex plora tion in the North Sudetic Trough (SW Po land), which em ploys gold grain anal y ses as a pros pect ing tool for the de tec tion of po ten tial...
The deep copper-silver ores in the central and eastern parts of the Fore-Sudetic Monocline had been unknown until the mid-1950s. During the following decades, gradually progressing studies and analyses of core material from a limited number of deep boreholes drilled in this region made it possible to acquire detailed information and to demarcate areas of potential mineral deposits, along with the estimation of their predicted resources. In spite of the above, due to the technological barriers which limited their profitable extraction to depths not exceeding 1250 m, those areas were not formerly considered as potential mining targets. It is only because of the progressing technological advancement that the extraction of those minerals has currently become possible and attainable, as evidenced by experience from all over the world. Because of the extensive exploration program conducted for several years in south-western Poland by companies belonging to the Miedzi Copper Group, the documenting of deep copper and silver deposits in this area has now become realistic. A primary condition of economically justified extraction is focusing on regions characterised by a higher quality of ore.
Microporous carbon molecular sieves of extremely narrow pore size distribution were obtained by carbonization of a novel raw material (Salix viminalis). The precursor is inexpensive and widely accessible. The pore capacity and specific surface area are upgradable by H 3 PO 4 treatment without significant change of narrowed PSD. The dominating pore size indicates that these molecular sieves are a potential competitor to other nanoporous materials such as opened and purified carbon nanotubes.
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