Fig. 1. The branches of Geology in relationwith the major fields of human knowledge

Fig. 2. Paleolithic and Neolithicstone tools

GEOLOGY AND MINING RELATIONSHIP

Prof.dr.H.C. GHEORGHE C. POPESCUUniversitatea Bucureşti

ABSTRACT: The relation between geology and mining is perfect symbiosis between anatural science and an engineering. Geological knowledge has been exercised from the verydawn of mankind, when first information on stones and minerals was gained. The Neolithicman has exploited silex, volcanic glass – the obsidian – that could be easily chipped, yieldingnice and sharp, yet fragile tools. It is obvious that various hard and nicely colored mineralssuch as agate, charneol, turquoise, hematite, etc. could not pass unobserved, and theprimitive man extensively used them as adornments. Later on, during the last two thousandyears BC, primitive miners have explored and extracted metallic ores, firstly copper, thenbronze and iron.

Keywords: geology, mining , stones, minerals, ores, explored, extracted.

Introduction

The relation suggested by the title is aninciting subject that allows an incursion inthe history of science and civilization andthat gives an example of a perfect symbiosisbetween a natural science and anengineering key field.

Geology has separated relatively late as aself-standing science, that is, in the XVIII-thcentury, together with biology. However,primary elements of geology, and no less ofmining, have appeared much earlier.Geological knowledge has been exercised

from the very dawn of mankind, when firstinformation on stones and minerals wasgained.

Today, geology appears as a complexscience, a system organized on two levels: acentral one, playing the role of a core, whichincludes the disciplines studying minerals,and another – external – one, grouping thosebranches of science that interact with thefundamental areas of knowledge (Fig.1).

As anyone knows, the first tools used byman were made of stone: axes, silex andobsidian blades, arrow and spear heads, allused mostly for hunting (Fig.2).

6 Ghe. C. Popescu

Minerals may have been noticed evenbefore stones, mostly due to their aestheticappearance.

Many of them may have been used asadornments or magic objects. First to be usedwere the precious stones and then, themetals.

As mentioned earlier, many tools andweapons used by primitive man were madeof silex. This suggests that a choice hasbeen made, based on knowing the propertiesof a particular stone, out of the manyoccurring on the Earth’s surface.

Of course, tools were made also of otherstones: quartz, granite, schists, quartzite,hard limestone, but the preferred materialwas silex, especially due to its property ofbreaking into sharp chips and to standprolonged employment. The silex has beenused for hundreds of thousands of years,from the epoch of unprocessed stones –whose vestiges were found at Saint-Priestand Abeville – till 2500 years BC, whenmetals became common.

Soon after depleting local surface sourcesof silex, pre-historic men began to look forother, not so obvious occurrences, that is,they began to “explore”. They most probablynoticed a certain position and a certainassociation of silex, with respect to otherrocks in the Earth’s crust, or to certainstrata, doing basically what we call today asGeology. It then followed the extraction ofsilex, by digging galleries and shafts, that isby “mining”. Such activity was common forthe last 5,000 years BC, namely, duringNeolithic.

Beside silex, the Neolithic man, has alsoexploited volcanic glass – the obsidian – thatcould be easily chipped, yielding nice andsharp, yet fragile tools. It is obvious thatvarious hard and nicely colored mineralssuch as agate, charneol, turquoise, hematite,etc. could not pass unobserved, and theprimitive man extensively used them asadornments.

Beside silex, the Neolithic man, has alsoexploited volcanic glass – the obsidian – thatcould be easily chipped, yielding nice andsharp, yet fragile tools. It is obvious that

various hard and nicely colored mineralssuch as agate, charneol, turquoise, hematite,etc. could not pass unobserved, and theprimitive man extensively used them asadornments.

Later on, during the last two thousandyears BC, primitive miners have exploredand extracted metallic ores, firstly copper,then bronze and iron.

Metals and human society

The first native metal ever noticed byman – especially for its colour – was gold(Fig.3). Due to its malleability, golddistinguishes clearly from the hard andbrittle stones used for tools. Gold could beplied into thin sheets or strings, mold invarious shapes. The technique of processinggold has well preceded its extraction fromores. Gold was always a precious metal,valuable beyond its actual practical usage. Ithas been assigned with mystical powers, andimposed itself as a symbol of wealth andpower Fig.4). Opposite to bronze or iron,gold has not given its name to any epoch inthe history of mankind. Instead, it has beena permanent reference point in the history ofcivilization.

Copper (Fig.5) – which may be asglittering as gold, when unoxidized – couldbe used for making tools. This determined itsextraction from carbonate and sulfidic ores,that were easy to find and to process (Fig. 6).

Subsequently, copper and tin ores (Fig.7)have been used – probably accidentally inthe beginning – to obtain bronze (an alloy ofcopper and tin). It is hard to believe however,that the prehistoric man discovered therecipise of this alloy by means ofmetallurgical studies. The discovery ofbronze seems to have been rather anaccident, linked to the way these ancientpeople used to protect their bonfires. Amongthe blocks of rock fencing the fire, theremight have been fragments of tin and copperores whose melting produced a metal whichwas different from copper – already wellknown to man – but with superior propertiescompared to copper.

7Geology and mining relationship

Fig. 3. Native gold. A. foils (Ontario); B. skeletal(Sacaramb); C. nuggets (California)

Fig. 4. A gold emblem of antiquity; the hairpin of a tribe leader from theCentral Asian steppes, the VII-th century BC.

8 Ghe. C. Popescu

Fig. 6. Secondary copper minerals (Rio Tinto, Spain)1-stalactite of coppersulfates; 2-kornelite; 3-oquimbite; 4-rhomboclase;5-halotrichite;

6-coquimbite-chalcantite; 7-kornelite; 8-fibrous aggregate of epsomite.

Fig. 5. Native copper (Rio Tinto, Spain)

9Geology and mining relationship

Fig. 8. Iron meteorite (Portland, U.S.A.)

Fig. 7. Copper and tin ores (Panasqueira-Portugal) A. chalcopyrite and ferberite; B. cassiterite and quartz

The manufacturing of metal tools hasrepresented an obvious technical progress.Metal tools were much more durable thanthose made of stone. Metal weapons werealso much more efficient, both in huntingand war. But on the other hand, for manycenturies, metals have been expensive. Theword “metal” itself derives from a Greek rootmeaning “to search”, suggesting that it wasa matter of a very rare material. This is whymetals have been used especially formanufacturing luxury accessories, where asagriculture and a large part of the craftsman-

ship have used stone tools. Only bronze – with a low melting point –

could be founded into casts and hot worked.With its resistance to oxidation, bronze wassuperior to stone and began to be used inmanufacturing a large range of objects, toolsand weapons.

The Bronze Age thus took the place ofthe Stone Age.

Iron has been initially as rare as copper,maybe even rarer. Its main source wasrepresented by meteorites rather than native,earthly iron (Fig.8).

10 Ghe. C. Popescu

Fig. 9. Front cover of the Latin edition of „De Re Metallica” published in 1556.

The iron used in antiquity (the XV-thcentury BC) was obtained by reducing ironoxides in burning charcoal, inside clayfurnaces and with manually driven bellows.

The resulting spongy iron lump was thenhammered. Through subsequent forging andwelding, one could eventually obtain morecomplicated forms. The technique wastotally different from that involved in copperprocessing, and it has been kept secret for along time. The keepers of these secret werethe Chalybe tribe from Caucasus, theChinese and the Indians, who manufacturedthe renowned Damascus swords or thelegendary charmed swords (e.g. KingArthur’s “Excal ibur” , Siegfr ied’s“Balmung”).

However, for a long period of time, ironcould not entirely replace bronze, but rathercomplemented it. During the Iron Age, evenmore bronze than in the Bronze Age hasbeen produced. This was due to an increaseddemand of tools and weapons. Hardenedsteel was much rarer than bronze, andexcepting its use in making weapons, it didnot play an important role in technics untilthe advent of industrial revolution, in the

XVIII-th century.Such an assertion should however be

amended if we only take into considerationthe Roman mining carried out in theApuseni Mountains. To dig the famousgalleries at Rosia Montana and in otherplaces throughout Apuseni, the Romansused, beside fire, the iron hammer andchisel. This technique was very efficient andcontributed to the considerable quantities ofgold produced during the Roman occupationof Dacia.

This historical picture pleads for the ideathat mining and geology have been littledifferentiated during Antiquity, MiddleAges, and until the XVIII-th century.

The ultimate expression of the unitybetween mining, geology and metallurgy isthe work „De Re Metallica”, written byGeorg Bauer alias Georgius Agricola(1490–1555). This work has been consideredby the science historians as “the mostcomplete technical treatise ever written,because it describes not only minerals andmetals, but also the practice and the economyof mining exploitations in that time” (J. D.Bernal, 1964). (Fig.9).

The most important technical progressduring Renaissance has taken place in theclose connected fields of mining, metallurgyand chemistry. The increased need of metalshas brought along a larger number of mines

being opened, firstly in Germany and then inAmerica. During the Middle Ages, mininghas been represented by small privateinitiatives or associative groups of freeminers, who carried exploration and

11Geology and mining relationship

Fig. 10. A mine representation inAgricola’s “De Re Metalica”

Fig. 11. Furnace for meltingiron ores

extraction on their own. They paid taxesdirectly to the king or prince who, in turn,protected them against local feudalauthorities. Along with the development ofmining, free miners began to associate,sharing the benefices allotment wise.

Even Agricola, the author of the above-mentioned “De Re Metallica”, who was theofficial physician of the Saxonian mines,held shares at the most profitable mines.

As mines were becoming deeper anddeeper, pumping and craning devices werein ever greater demand. This led to anincreased interest in the principles ofmechanics and hydrotechnics (Fig. 10).

Following the decline of mining inGermany – mostly due to religious wars –the German miners and metallurgistsemigrated to Spain, England and the NewWorld – one of the causes behind the futurewealth of these territories.

The melting of metals has been a trueschool for chemistry. The increasinglydeveloping mining activity was to bring tosurface new ores and even new metals –zinc, bismuth (gold-like colored metal),cobalt (from Kobold = the mine’s gnome) –or the fake brass.

The ways of manipulating and processingthe new metal ores has led to theestablishment of a new general theory ofchemistry, mainly pointing to oxidation andreduction processes, distillation and amalga-mation. The quantitative chemical analysisnecessary for the determi-nation of metalcontents, was nothing else but a small scalereproduction of a melting process using adefined quantity of ore. This was thefoundation of chemical expertise andanalysis.

Much more significant transformationswere taking place in the field of less“appealing” products such as those made ofiron. As far back as the XIV-th century, themetallurgy of iron knew some fundamentalchanges, mainly linked with the processingof cast iron. Even though cast iron had beenknown long before, in China (II-nd centuryBC), its advent in Europe had nothing to dowith that. The appearance of cast iron inEurope has been the consequence of the everincreasing production of iron. For threethousand years, iron had been produced insmall furnaces, by reduction of ores withcharcoal, at small temperatures (Fig.11).

12 Ghe. C. Popescu

Along with the arrival of larger furnaces,air needed to be introduced with the aid ofhydraulic bellows, thus producing very hightemperatures. Melted iron poured along adent placed in the front of the furnace. Theiron cast obtained in this way was difficult topurify, but step by step, the process has beenimproved, and the blast furnaces graduallyreplaced the old ones.

Towards the end of the XVIII-th century,iron production passed from hundreds ofkilograms to tons, temporarily inducing ashortage in charcoal supplies. Traditionaliron manufacturers – England, France,Germany – had to leave their leadingposition to the advantage of Russia andSweden which had immense forests. Afterother two centuries, coal began to beextensively used. The wide coal resources ofEngland and Germany have brought thesenations again to supremacy, as leadingproducers of iron cast and then, of steel.

Out of the three main methods ofproducing steel– Bessemer, Siemens andThomas, the first two complied with thegrowing demand of steel, whereas the thirdproved to be crucial in recovering theimmense iron ore resources from the LakeSuperior area (fig.12), Lorene, Russia, India,and more recently, from Australia.

In the second half of the XX-th century,the demands pointed rather to a wide varietyof metals. Yet, the three metals that hadinfluenced the last 2000 years in the historyof mankind: gold, copper and iron, still helda central economic role.

The philosophy of ore exploration

Until the XIX-th century, autodidacticand encyclopedic prospectors could meet thedemands of new ores only for semi-industrialproduction of metals. However, during theindustrial revolution, the empirical approachof ore exploration was no longer adequate. Inthe beginning, the quest for metals and oreshas been under the influence of the idea that“Ore deposits are to be found where theyoccur”. The empirical research that followed

up, used a step by step strategy, a“centrifugal” principle stating that “Oredeposits are to be found near other oredeposits”. One has to admit that up to thisstage, geology had very little influence. Afterthat however, the analysis of geologicalsimilitude was to be the basis for thediscovery of new ore deposits. This principleof analogy had no chance other than beingfounded on scientific knowledge.

Geology has become a science relativelylate. In the beginning, it was basically a fieldscience. The mineral, rock and fossilcollector could not achieve much – the mosthe could do was to wonder in front of amultitude of odd things produced by Earth.

The miner, on the other hand, was sopreoccupied by the ore, by all the indicationsthat signaled its existence and by itsassociation with the host rocks, that he couldnot explain – and neither had the curiosity doso – the ore genesis and history, and evenless, the Earth’s structure and history.However, along with a growing interest fornature, an ever increasing number of XVIII-th century scientists started to study rocksand fossils.

They were thus able to state that shellsfound in the mountains proved that thoseareas had been ocean floors – confirming anidea first stated by what Leonardo da Vinci.From this point on, up to speculating uponan origin of life lost in immemorial times,was only a short distance. The travels and theamazing stories about volcanoes and earth-quakes from various parts of the world havestimulated a new conception about Earth,stating that its crust underwent continuouscataclysms during which it cracked and/orfolded, due to an internal fire. This started asterile polemic between the “neptunists” –whose exponent was the famous professorWerner from the Freiberg Mining Academy– and the “plutonists” – illustriouslyrepresented by the scotsman Hutton (Fig. 13).In his famous work „The theory of theEarth” – Hutton exposed a revolu-tionarytheory – the uniformism – which stated thatthe processes we see operating to form andshape the Earth today have always operated

13Geology and mining relationship

Fig. 12. Modern machinery for extracting iron frompoor ores, by melting them under electric arc

(2500ºC)

in the past. For this, Hutton is considered thefather of geology. As his succesor – theEnglish Lyell (Fig. 12) – later demonstrated:“the Present is the key to explain thePast”. Lyell ammended the uniformism andrenamed it as the principle of actualism.

Beside the principle of superposition ofrock strata formulated two hundred yearsearlier by Nicolaus Steno, this principleconstitutes the foundation of geology.

Without these principles, geology wouldnot have any sense and could not beconceived. How these principles helped todiscover ore deposits will be a matterdiscussed in the following paragraphs.

A. von Humboldt (Fig. 13), was the firstto observe the links between metallicconcentrations and igneous rocks. This ideahas been perfected and scientificallysubstantiated by Ellie de Beaumont, in histheory regarding volcanic and metallicemanations. In fact, this theory is anexpression of two fundamental principlesgoverning the contemporary metallogeny –the principle of actualism (as long as todaywe observe deposition of metals – especiallysulfides – in volcanic fields, the old oredeposits should have formed in the sameway), and the principle of similarity (therocks and ores have formed by the samegeological processes).

Fig. 13. The founders of Geology: J. Hutton, Ch. Lyell, A.von Humboldt

14 Ghe. C. Popescu

Fig. 14. Gold production of Romania until 1939 (I. Haiduc, 1940)

These principles agreed with the seenreality of today’s ore deposits distributedmainly in volcanic areas. The concentratedexpression of the above is in the saying: “ifyou want to discover ore deposits then goin the mountains”. This kind of thought hada practical and guiding meaning andreflected in the “centrifugal” principle ofprospecting new ore deposits in the vicinityof known ones.

The cradle of mining in MetaliferiMountains – which is older than twothousand years, illustrates the aboveconsiderations. Gold in these mountains hasbeen extracted first by the Agathyrsi tribes,and then by the Dacians and Romans. Goldrepresented in fact, the true reason behindthe Roman-Dacians wars. By the time of theRoman conquest, the Dacian thesaurus wasestimated at 150,000 kg gold, andrepresented an extraordinary war capture; tohonor its victory against the Dacians, Romeorganized celebrations for 100 days. Duringthe Roman occupation of Daciaapproximately 500,000 kgs. of gold havebeen extracted (Fig. 14). It is obvious thatthe mining technology introduced by theRomans – with the hammer

and chisel playing a fundamental role – hascontributed decisively to increasing the goldproduction in Apuseni Mts. That is, in thesame perimeter where free gold veins such asthose of Roşia Montană (Alburnus maior),Bucium, Zlatna (Ampelum), Almaş, Stănija,Ruda Caraci, had been known long before.

As to the application of the principle ofanalogy in discovering ore deposits, the caseof the Siberian diamonds is well known. Inthe early ‘50s of the XX-th century, Prof.Semenenco has drawn the attention upon thegeological similarities between Siberia andSouth Africa (Fig.15). On this basis hesuggested an extensive diamond searchcampaign in the Yakutian area. As thecountry needed diamonds and had plenty ofgeologists (over 10,000), a fever of Siberiandiamonds broke out.

After few years, first diamonds wherediscovered in the frozen alluvia of Yakutia,and next, their primary source areas – thekimberlitic chimneys. Even the art ofcinematography has immortalized this eventin the excellent movie by Kalatozov, thesame who gained the 1959 “Palme d’Or”, atCannes, with “The cranes are flying”.

15Geology and mining relationship

Fig. 15. The Big Hole” at Kimberley, left by the trail of diamonds down a kimberlitic chimney (A), primary diamond of 5mm, from Kimberley (B)

Fig. 16. Satellite image of a part of Rocky Mountains, in the region of the Binghamcopper ore deposit

One should not overlook the fact that dueto the progress achieved in the research ofextraterrestrial space, geology has overcomeits initial object from which it actuallyreceived its name: Geia = Earth, and addeda new branch: the Planetology. Thus,geology could benefit from a new space

technology – the remote sensing. By investigating the interaction between

electromagnetic waves and terrestrialenvironments, some extraordinary images ofthe geological structures, including thoserich in mineral resources (Fig.16) could beobtained.

16 Ghe. C. Popescu

Fig. 17. Bingham porphyry-copper ore deposit (Utah)

Thus, one could obtain cartographic-geologic images of territories still unseen byman – in deserts or under the ice covers.Through analogy with lands well known fortheir mineral resources, it has been possibleto predict their existence even in suchremote, still unknown areas. This hasbrought back an old concept that had beenabandoned for a long time – theliniamentarism. The reactualization of thisconcept has been made possible only by theremote sensing, and has helped in thediscovery of several gold deposits in oldterrains such as those from South Africa,Namibia, South Australia, and in our case, inthe South Carpathians.

At the end of the millenium, geologybrought a revolutionary and profoundconcept, with implications that exceeded byfar its object: the Global Tectonics. It wascalled “global” not because it referred to theEarth’s Globe, but for its general andcompre-hensive approach to all fundamentalproblems of geology especially to thosehaving a high impact on human knowledge:the formation of mountain chains, of oceansand seas, the transformation of continents –their movements and evolution. Perhaps onlythe XIX-th century’s concept of evolutionismhad such a dramatic influence on naturalsciences.

The concept of global tectonics emergedgradually from the initial core of thecontinental drift – developed in the lastfifties and the sixties, together with thenewly achieved knowledge on themorphology and content of the ocean floor.It eventually evolved into two theories: theocean floor spreading and the plate tectonics.

The global tectonics has been dominatingthe human knowledge about Earth andnature, for more than 30 years. Obviously,the concepts and the practice of ore-depositsdiscovery could not escape its influence. Theglobal tectonics placed the formation of ore-deposits and of related rocks in the areas ofstrongest interaction between the lithosphericplates, thus yielding an unprecedentedstrategy for the exploration of ore deposits.Never a scientific theory has been applied sorapidly and so successfully as the platetectonics.

Starting from a deterministic relationshipbetween subduction areas and calc-alkaline(andesitic) magmas associated with largeaccumulation of copper, molybdenum andgold – the porphyry copper type (Fig. 17), averitable copper and gold rush broke out inthe actual and prequaternary subductionareas (Fig.18).

17Geology and mining relationship

Fig. 18. The correlation between the lithospheric plate margins and the metals thatconcentrate in this areas

The results have arisen very quickly. Newore deposits have been found in areas thathad been previously well known for theirmineralized structures, and also in areaswhere nobody had had a clue about any oredeposits: it was the case of someaccumulations in Peru, Bolivia, Iran,Indonesia, the Philippines, Polynesia and notthe least, in our country. It is equally truethat geophysics contributed a lot to thissuccess. The magnetometry proved to be avery efficient method to spot porphyrystructures, especially due to the highmagnetite contents of these deposits.

In the end, we will give two examples toillustrate the above considerations. The firstexample comes from the Indonesian Iryan,Papua-New Guinea island. The Ertsberg(The Ore Mountain) ore deposit, discoveredby an Dutch expedition, in dense forest, atover 4300 meters in altitude, as early as1936, has remained incaccessible for a longtime.

During the ‘60s, the American miningcompany Freeport – McMaran, decided toinvest about 1 billion USD in this project.The helicopters began to fly over the jungle,modern roads began to advance slowly (4-6m/day) in rough terrains with inclinesexceeding 70 ‰.

Huge efforts were made, but eventuallyeverything was worthy, as an immense profitexpected the explorers: a “capture” of 40billions $.

In 1988, the Freeport geologistsdiscovered another ore-deposit: Grasberg(Fig. 20), lying at an even higher altitude –4600 m. Its exploitation meant an even moreextensive use of helicopters and giantbulldozers, working in an extremely ruggedterrain, with cascades of over 600 m. The oredeposit was estimated at 60 billion USD, andrepresented the biggest and richest golddeposit in the world. Its daily ore productionis of 160,000 tons, and it is expected to growin the near future, to 300,000 tons.

These, and other similar ore depositscould not possibly be exploited unlessmodern extracting and ore-processingtechnologies were involved.

It is an example of convergence ofscience and technology, where arevolutionary idea – the plate tectonics – iswell served by a break-trough heavyengineering. Such convergence is also wellillustrated in the case of our country. Thegold fields in Brad-Săcărâmb and Roşia-Bucium districts, have been extensivelyexplored and mined in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

18 Ghe. C. Popescu

The geology of these areas, was re-examined in the new context of the platetectonics. Thus, several structures withdisseminated copper – much poorer incomparison with their vein counterparts –could pass the productivity exam, of course,by using technology adapted to intensivelarge scale exploitation, by excavating andby moving mining masses of previouslyunimaginable volumes, and in favorableeconomic circumstances.Starting from adeterministic relationship betweensubduction areas and calc-alkaline(andesitic) magmas associated with largeaccumulation of copper, molybdenum andgold – the porphyry copper type (Fig. 17), averitable copper and gold rush broke out inthe actual and pre-quaternary subductionareas (Fig.18).

The results have arisen very quickly. Newore deposits have been found in areas thathad been previously well known for theirmineralized structures, and also in areaswhere nobody had had a clue about any oredeposits: it was the case of someaccumulations in Peru, Bolivia, Iran,Indonesia, the Philippines, Polynesia and notthe least, in our country. It is equally truethat geophysics contributed a lot to thissuccess. The magnetometry proved to be avery efficient method to spot porphyrystructures, especially due to the highmagnetite contents of these deposits.

In the end, we will give two examples toillustrate the above considerations. The firstexample comes from the Indonesian Iryan,Papua-New Guinea island. The Ertsberg(The Ore Mountain) ore deposit, discoveredby an Dutch expedition, in dense forest, atover 4300 meters in altitude, as early as1936, has remained incaccessible for a longtime. During the ‘60s, the American miningcompany Freeport – McMaran, decided toinvest about 1 billion USD in this project.The helicopters began to fly over the jungle,modern roads began to advance slowly (4-6m/day) in rough terrains with inclinesexceeding 70 ‰. Huge efforts were made,but eventually everything was worthy, as animmense profit expected the explorers: a

“capture” of 40 billions $.In 1988, the Freeport geologists

discovered another ore-deposit: Grasberg(Fig. 19), lying at an even higher altitude –4600 m. Its exploitation meant an even moreextensive use of helicopters and giantbulldozers, working in an extremely ruggedterrain, with cascades of over 600 m. The oredeposit was estimated at 60 billion USD, andrepresented the biggest and richest golddeposit in the world. Its daily ore productionis of 160,000 tons, and it is expected to growin the near future, to 300,000 tons.

These, and other similar ore depositscould not possibly be exploited unlessmodern extracting and ore-processingtechnologies were involved. It is an exampleof convergence of science and technology,where a revolutionary idea – the platetectonics – is well served by a break-troughheavy engineering. Such convergence is alsowell illustrated in the case of our country.The gold fields in Brad-Săcărâmb and Roşia-Bucium districts, have been extensivelyexplored and mined in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

The geology of these areas, was re-examined in the new context of the platetectonics. Thus, several structures withdisseminated copper – much poorer incomparison with their vein counterparts –could pass the productivity exam, of course,by using technology adapted to intensivelarge scale exploitation, by excavating andby moving mining masses of previouslyunimaginable volumes, and in favorableeconomic circumstancesIn just few years, somany copper and gold deposits have beendiscovered, that they exceeded in volume allthat had been discovered in the previousdecades (Fig.20). We can conclude that therelation between geology and mining is oneof unity – tight and mutually determined.The progress of geology gives miningunlimited fronts of action, and the progressof them both, serves the human civilization,by yielding what we now so commonly call“mineral raw materials” – without which theprogress of humankind was not, it is not andwill never be possible.

19Geology and mining relationship

Fig. 19. Aerial photo of the Grasberg mine (West Iryan, Papua-New Guinea)

Fig. 20. The porphyry-copper ore deposits found in the ‘70s, in the Metaliferi Mts. 1-Roşia Poieni, 2-Bucium-Tarniţa, 3-Bucureşci-Rovona, 4-Musariu Nopu,

5-Bolcana, 6-Săcărâmb, 7-Deva

20 Ghe. C. Popescu

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