Alterations By Surface Agencies

By hydrometamorphism is meant the alteration of rocks, ores and minerals by atmospheric waters. In its broadest sense, it includes the varied processes of weathering, oxidation, hydration, the leaching of rocks and ores, and the solution, migration and enrichment of metals. Rain water, as it strikes the earth, is practically pure water, except for small quantities of dissolved atmospheric gases; upon coming in contact with ore minerals, especially sulphides, however, it is transformed into solutions of great chemical activity, which attack, transform and rearrange the minerals of ore- bodies, and so effect enrichments of the greatest economic importance. Primary deposits so low in grade as to be without commercial value are frequently thus transformed into deposits of commercial importance. It is necessary in the examination of any orebody, therefore, to determine whether the valuable ore is of primary or of secondary origin; if primary, its value may be expected to continue indefinitely in depth to the zone of primary impoverishment; if secondary, the ore deposition is known to be controlled by surface agencies, and the valuable ore may be expected to continue to such depths only as have been reached by surface waters. The decomposition and weathering of rocks, unlike the changes undergone by orebodies, are accomplished by water carrying as dissolved constituents chiefly atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide, together with vegetable acids. The chemical changes wrought are principally hydration, oxidation and the formation of carbonates. The tendency is toward the solution of the more easily dissolved minerals, which is attended by the formation and a surface concentration of the more resistant minerals,