Conditional estimates of the number of podiform chromite deposits |
| |
| Authors: | Singer Donald A |
| |
| Institution: | (1) U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, 94025 Menlo Park, California, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | A desirable guide for estimating the number of undiscovered mineral deposits is the number of known deposits per unit area from another well-explored permissive terrain. An analysis of the distribution of 805 podiform chromite deposits among ultramafic rocks in 12 subareas of Oregon and 27 counties of California is used to examine and extend this guide. The average number of deposits in this sample of 39 areas is 0.225 deposits per km2 of ultramafic rock; the frequency distribution is significantly skewed to the right. Probabilistic estimates can be made by using the observation that the lognormal distribution fits the distribution of deposits per unit area. A further improvement in the estimates is available by using the relationship between the area of ultramafic rock and the number of deposits.The number (N) of exposed podiform chromite deposits can be estimated by the following relationship: log10(N)=–0.194+0.577 log10(area of ultramafic rock). The slope is significantly different from both 0.0 and 1.0. Because the slope is less than 1.0, the ratio of deposits to area of permissive rock is a biased estimator when the area of ultramafic rock is different from the median 93 km2. Unbiased estimates of the number of podiform chromite deposits can be made with the regression equation and 80 percent confidence limits presented herein. |
| |
| Keywords: | Mineral assessment Number of deposits Chromite Mineral deposit density |
| 本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录！ |
