MINDeSEA WP5 Marine Placer Deposits (Area)
Description
Marine placer deposits have received much attention during marine exploration. They comprise detrital heavy metallic minerals and gemstones, eroded from, usually igneous, source rocks on land and transported to sea, mostly by rivers. Thereby placer deposits are concentrated by water motions (waves, tides, currents). The most important of these minerals, from an economical aspect, are: cassiterite (tin), ilmenite and rutile (titanium), zircon (zirconium), chromite (chromium), monazite (thorium), magnetite (iron), gold; the principle gemstone is diamond (Harben & Bates 1990). According to Daesslé and Fischer (2013) about 75% of the world’s tin, 11% of gold, and 13% of platinum are extracted from placers (Baker et al. 2014). Marine placer occurrences can be classified taking into account various factors.
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