The diversified geology of various regions and stratigraphic levels within the sedimentary basin have given rise to a wide variety of minerals, more than 50 different kinds other than oil, gas, and coal, that have an existing or potential resource value.
Organic mineral resources of the sedimentary basin :
Oil and Natural Gas Resources:
The world was divided into eight regions and 937 geologic provinces. These provinces have been ranked according to the discovered known oil and gas volumes (Klett et al., 1997).
Then, researchers selected 76 “priority” provinces (excluding the United States) for their high ranking and 26 “boutique” provinces (excluding the United States) for appraisal of oil and gas resources. They chose boutique provinces based on their anticipated petroleum richness or special regional economic or strategic importance (Klett, 2000).
A geologic province is an area having characteristic dimensions of hundreds of kilometers that encompasses a natural geologic entity (for example, a sedimentary basin, thrust belt, or accreted terrane) or some combination of contiguous geologic entities.
A spatial entity with common geologic attributes defines each geologic province. Geologists drew province boundaries as logically as possible along natural geologic boundaries, though in some areas, they placed them arbitrarily (for example, along specific water-depth contours in the open oceans) (Klett, 2000).
Total petroleum systems and assessment units were delineated for each geologic province considered for assessment. It is not necessary for the boundaries of total petroleum systems and assessment units to be entirely contained within a geologic province.
Particular emphasis places on the similarities of petroleum fluids within total petroleum systems, unlike geologic provinces and plays that emphasize the similarities of rocks (Klett, 2000).
The total petroleum system includes all genetically related petroleum that occurs in shows and accumulations (discovered and undiscovered) generated by a pod or by closely related pods of mature source rock.
Total petroleum systems exist within a limited mappable geologic space, together with the essential mappable geologic elements (source, reservoir, seal, and overburden rocks).
These essential geologic elements control the fundamental processes that generate, expel, migrate, entrap, and preserve petroleum within the total petroleum system (Klett, 2000).
Inorganic Mineral Resources of the sedimentary basin:
Volcanogenic massive sulphides (VMS):
Volcanologists and geologists also call volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits volcanic-associated, volcanic-hosted, and volcano-sedimentary-hosted massive sulphide deposits. These deposits typically form as lenses of polymetallic massive sulphide at or near the seafloor in submarine volcanic environments.
They form from metal-enriched fluids associated with seafloor hydrothermal convection. Their immediate host rocks can be either volcanic or sedimentary. VMS deposits are major sources of Zn, Cu, Pb, Ag and Au, and significant sources for Co, Sn, Se, Mn, Cd, In, Bi, Te, Ga and Ge. Some also contain significant amounts of As, Sb and Hg.
Historically, they account for 27% of Canada’s Cu production, 49% of its Zn, 20% of its Pb, 40% of its Ag and 3% of its Au. Because of their polymetallic content, VMS deposits continue to be one of the best deposit types for security against fluctuating prices of different metals. There are close to 800 known VMS deposits worldwide with geological reserves over 200,000 t (Galley et al., 2007).
Metaliferous Oxides:
Manganese nodules form in all the oceans. They accumulate very slowly, growing only a few millimeters in one million years. On average, a nodule contains 24% manganese, whereas land ore bodies have 35 to 55% manganese. As a result, they are not a highly economical manganese source. However, they also contain iron (14%), copper (1%), nickel (1%), and cobalt (0.25%).
Metallic and Gem Minerals in Placer Deposits:
Sedimentary processes concentrate mineral grains to form a placer deposit. Wave action or stream flow sorts pebbles, sands, and silts, causing minerals with higher specific gravity and resistance to weathering to accumulate, particularly in beaches and drowned river mouths.
Marine placer mineral deposits are found on the continental shelf from the beaches to the outer shelf. The strategic element titanium is derived mainly from ilmenite and rutile ores, while the noble elements are gold and platinum.
Mineral Resources of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin:
Minerals other than oil, gas, and coal occur in abundance and variety in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. They include the industrial (or nonmetallic) and metallic minerals and together account for a significant proportion of Western Canada’s wealth.
Metallic minerals are much less developed; known deposits are few and generally small, although they include the world-class Pine Point (Pb-Zn) ore-body. For the industrial minerals, most production comes from the Interior Plains region, where Phanerozoic rocks form a northeast-tapering wedge of undeformed strata.
These strata include Paleozoic carbonates and evaporites that give rise to rich resources of sulphur, potash, salt, gypsum, limestone and dolomite. The Paleozoic strata are succeeded by Mesozoic and Tertiary clastic rocks that are sources for economic deposits of kaolin and structural clays, bentonite, silica sand, and constructional sands and gravels.
Important production also comes from the Cordilleran region, where deformed and upthrust basin strata in the Rocky Mountain belt expose economic deposits of limestone, magnesite, gypsum, and quartzite.
For the metallic minerals, except for Pine Point, most deposits have been found in the Cordilleran region. These are mainly lead-zinc deposits of the Mississippi Valley type, few in number and widely separated; limited past production came from small localized orebodies in southeastern British Columbia.
In the Interior Plains, the Pine Point lead-zinc deposit is the largest and only significant economic deposit. Some placer gold is still produced from Tertiary and recent gravels. Sedimentary iron deposits (in the Clear Hills region of Alberta) are large but remain undeveloped (Hamilton and Olson, 1990).
Mineral Resources of the Australian Sedimentary Basins:
Heavy minerals:
The Murray Basin, much of which is in New South Wales, has the potential to become one of the world’s major new mineral sands provinces.
Total resources of coarse-grained heavy minerals (rutile, zircon, ilmenite and weathered ilmenite) identified in the Murray Basin exceed 100 Mt, of which over 80 Mt occurs in the New South Wales part of the basin. Beach placers along much of the coast north of Sydney were formerly major sources of rutile, zircon, and ilmenite.
These heavy minerals form as accessory minerals in many igneous and metamorphic rocks, and nearly all major economic deposits of these minerals, principally rutile, zircon, and ilmenite, occur as detrital accumulations in young (Pliocene or younger) shoreline or beach placer deposits (Force 1991; Roy and Whitehouse 2003).
Bauxite:
Australia is the largest producer of bauxite in the world. New South Wales has numerous comparatively small, scattered deposits of bauxite/laterite that typically occur as discontinuous deposits along the crests of flat hills, ridges and in areas of generally subdued topography (Holmes et al. 1982).
Other Metals:
Gold, Copper, Silver, Uranium, Gypsum, Iron oxide, Kaolin, Limestone, Magnesite, Magnetite, Manganese, Mica, Olivine, Opal, Asbestos and Dolomite (McHaffie and Buckley 1995).
