ASSOCIATIONS OF TRACE ELEMENTS IN SPHALERITE AS INDICATORS OF THE ASSOCIATIONAL AND GENETIC TYPES OF LEAD-ZINC DEPOSITS

Abstract

Current theories on ore associations are based on mineralogical and geological features of ore deposits, and also on the sets of elements present in specific ores. The classification of deposits in terms of the trace elements in their ores involves multidimensional statistics, i.e., by partitioning methods. After a given data set is partitioned, the corresponding set of trace elements is ordered in terms of their decreasing (or increasing) information content that the concentrations of each element carry. Then a correlation analysis is performed on each group of observations, and generalized characteristics, describing the correlations between elements, are derived. This concluding stage of the ore association analysis is the subject of the present paper, which brings together our previous work and derives a generalized set of equations. It then describes the testing of these equations on data of trace elements in sphalerite from deposits of various ore associations.