Exploration & Mining Glossary

Chlorite - Rock mineral. A soft pale green - black, aluminium-silicate mineral found ubiquitously at all Peel Mining prospects. Commonly formed by low-grade metamorphism (see metamorphic).

Cleavage - The tendency for a mineral to break along smooth planes parallel to zones of weak bonding. Can also refer to rock cleavage, which is a type of secondary foliation (see foliation), caused by stress and strain, resulting in the ability of a rock to "cleave" into more or less parallel surfaces. Example: the cleavage in slate is caused by the re-orienatation of clay grains and solution of quartz, making slate weak parallel to the cleavage and strong perpendictur.

Cobar Basin/Superbasin - The Cobar Superbasin is found in central NSW and formed in the Early Devonian, it's characterised by it's "Cobar-Style" deposits (see Cobar Style) and regarded as the richest polymetallic basin in the Lachlan Orogen (see Lachlan Orogen). It is known primarily for it's Gold, Silver, Copper, Zinc and Lead content. Mineralisation deposited during the basin inversition phase, with the early mineralisation froming intrustion related epithermal, VMS (see VMS) and Irish Type deposits. Later mineralisation formed Cobar-style, quartz vein hosted and Mississippi Valley Type deposits.

Cobar-style mineralisation - Cobar Style mineralisation is a common name for mineral deposits hosted in the Cobar Superbasin and includes massive sulphides (VMS), clastic hosted Pb-Zn mineralisation and epithermal gold.

Concentrate - Material produced from metalliferous ore by mineral processing or beneficiation; commonly based on sulphides of zinc, lead and copper. The raw ore is usually ground finely in various comminution operations and gangue (waste) is removed, thus concentrating the metal component. The concentrate is then transported to various physical or chemical processes called hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy smelters, and electrometallurgy where it is used to produce useful metals.

Copper (Cu) - Is a metal characterised by high ductility, and electrical and thermal conductivity. It is hosted by the sulphide mineral, chalcopyrite, which occurs predominately within veins and periodically within the orebody alongside other sulphides.

Copper (Cu) equivalent - The monetary value of all the metal divided by the current market value of Copper to provide an equivalent quantity of Copper as a percentage.

Core - A solid, cylindrical sample of rock extracted from beneath the Earth’s surface by drilling.

Cut-off grade - Lowest grade or assay value of ore in a deposit that will recover mining costs; the cut-off grade determines the workable tonnage of an ore.

Deposit - A mineral deposit is a mineralized mass that may be economically valuable, but whose characteristics require more detailed information. An ore body being mined may be called a deposit.