Take a virtual tour of the largest zinc mines in the world

During the fifth week of COVID-19 lockdown in Australia, I continue my virtual mine tour of the planet via Google Earth. This week I have been visiting the ten largest zinc mines in the world.

Like the previous weeks I am sharing a .kmz file with all ten deposits, so you can come along too!

According to Wikipedia the ten largest zinc mines of the world (by annual production) in 2019 were:

1. Red Dog, USA, 552kt (A metric kiloton [kt] is 1,000 metric tons)
2. Rampura Agucha, India, 358kt
3. Mt Isa, Australia, 326kt
4. Antamina, Peru, 303kt
5. McArthur River, Australia, 271kt
6. San Cristobel, Bolivia, 206kt
7. Dugald River, Australia, 170kt
8. Vazante, Brazil, 139kt
9. Cerro Lindo, Peru, 126kt
10. Tara, Ireland, 122kt

The biggest deposits are sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) type ore deposits (Red Rog, Rampura Agucha, Mt Isa, MacArthur River and Dugald River), whilst the rest span a gamut of ore deposit models: skarn (Antamina), epithermal (San Cristobel), carbonate-hosted zinc-silicate (Vazante), Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) (Cerro Lindo) and Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) (Tara).

Geophysics has played a role in the discovery and/or the delineation of the extent of several of these deposits:

• SEDEX orebodies and associated pyritic stratigraphy are dense and produce significant gravity anomalies. The Red Dog deposit has a relatively high density and there is a well-formed 2.7mGal gravity anomaly associated with the deposit.
• Ground magnetic surveys have successfully outlined the Antamina deposits with the magmatic skarn intrusions associated with magnetic highs.
• Induced polarisation (IP) and resistivity surveys were successful in outlining the McArthur River deposit. Both the Geotem and Questem airborne time-domain electromagnetic systems produce clear anomalies over the McArthur River deposit.
• The Rampura Agucha and the McArthur River mineralization have no magnetic signature, but regional airborne magnetics delineates regional fault structures which may be important in the localisation of the deposits.
• The zinc ore and the hematite breccias in the Vazante zinc silicate deposits have distinct densities and magnetic susceptibilities. Hence gravity and magnetic methods are effective geophysical tool for zinc silicate exploration. Uranium enrichment of the zinc silicate ore allows for gamma-ray survey integration in the exploration workflow.
• The Cerro Lindo VMS deposit was initially discovered from geochemical sampling of outcrops of barite followed by induced polarisation (IP) surveys. These outlined five anomalies indicating massive sulphides, which were later verified by drilling follow-up.

But now, as promised, the virtual tour of the world’s ten largest zinc mines: download the Google Earth .kmz file from the Nordic Geoscience website by using this link:

https://www.nordicgeoscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-Ten-Largest-Zinc-Mines-in-the-World-in-2019.zip

Unzip the downloaded .zip file and extract the archived “The Ten Largest Zinc Mines in the World in 2019.kmz” file.

Provided you have Google Earth Pro installed, you can now double-click on the “The Ten Largest Zinc Mines in the World in 2019.kmz” file and Google Earth Pro will launch (if Google Earth Pro is not installed – see below).

Alternatively you can launch Google Earth Pro and manually import the “The Ten Largest Zinc Mines in the World in 2019.kmz” file.

Once you have imported the “The Ten Largest Zinc Mines in the World in 2019.kmz” into Google Earth Pro, you can just double-click any of the ten place markers (yellow pins) in the expanded “Places” menu on the left, and Google Earth takes you there.

Figure 1 - Google Earth Pro launched with “The Ten Largest Zinc Mines in the World in 2019.kmz”. Click on any of the ten place marks (yellow pins) in the menu on the left, and the program will take you to that location.

My personal favourite is McArthur River. I recently provided geophysical support to an exploration team searching for a similar deposit further north along the Emu Fault in Northern Territory, Australia. We used geochemical sampling, airborne gravity gradiometry and distributed induced polarisation surveying to good effect.

Figure 2 – Google Earth Pro aerial view of the McArthur River zinc mine in Northern Territory, Australia.

Which zinc mine is your favourite and why?

Travel virtually, stay at home and stay safe!

Asbjorn Norlund Christensen is a consulting geophysicist at Nordic Geoscience, a geoscience consultancy with bespoke solutions in exploration geophysics and data science – www.nordicgeoscience.com

PS:

You will need Google Earth Pro on your device to enjoy the tour. You can download Google Earth Pro from here: https://www.google.com/earth/versions/