The possible magnification of the process of secondary enrichment above referred to has had for its logical consequence a tendency to over-emphasize the persistence of primary ores in depth. The very use of the terms "secondary" and "primary" has suggested antithesis between surficial and deep ores. Progress in investigation, as indicated on previous pages, seems to indicate that the primary ores are not uniformly deep and that in many cases they are distinctly limited to a given set of formations or conditions comparatively near the surface.
In general the processes of oxidation and secondary sulphide enrichment have been studied mainly by qualitative methods with the aid of the microscope and by considerations of possible chemical processes. These methods have disclosed the nature but not the quantitative range and relations of the different processes. Much remains to be done in the way of large scale quantitative analysis of ores at different depths, as a check to inferences drawn by other methods. One may know, for instance, that a mineral is soluble and is actually removed from the oxide zone and redeposited below. The natural inference, therefore, is that the mineral will be found to be depleted above and enriched below. In many cases its actual distribution is the reverse,—indicating that this process has been only one of the factors in the net result, the more rapid solution and deposition of other materials being another factor. If one were to approach the study of the concentration of iron ores with the fixed idea of insolubility of quartz from a chemical standpoint, and were to draw conclusions accordingly, he would fail to present a true picture of the situation. While quartz is insoluble as compared with most minerals, it is nevertheless more soluble than iron oxide, and therefore the net result of concentration at the surface is to accumulate the iron rather than the silica. Descriptions of enrichment processes as published in many reports are often misleading in this regard. They may be correct in indicating the actual existence of a process, but may lead the reader to assumptions as to net results which are incorrect.
RESIDUAL MINERAL DEPOSITS FORMED BY THE WEATHERING OF IGNEOUS ROCKS IN PLACE
Igneous rocks not containing mineral deposits may on weathering change to mineral deposits. The lateritic iron ores such as those of Cuba (p. 172), many bauxite deposits, many residual clays, and certain chromite and nickel deposits are conspicuous representatives of this class. The chemical and mineralogical changes involved in the formation of these deposits are pretty well understood. Certain constituents of the original rock are leached out and carried away, leaving other constituents, as oxides and hydrates, in sufficiently large percentage in the mass to be commercially available. The accumulation of large deposits depends on the existence of climatic and erosional conditions which determine that the residual deposit shall remain in place rather than be carried off by erosion as fast as made. In the glaciated parts of the world, deposits of this nature have usually been removed and dispersed in the glacial drift.
When the minerals of these deposits are eroded, transported, and redeposited in concentrated form, they come under the class of placer or sedimentary deposits described under the following heading. There are of course many intermediate stages, where the residual deposit is only locally moved and where the distinction between this class of deposits and that next described is an arbitrary one.