Product

Chromite is a key ingredient…more

Exploration

Geology

The heavy mineral placer deposits of the southern Oregon coast between Coos Bay and Gold Beach are the result of traditional beach placer deposition that has been preserved by crustal uplift and warping via offshore tectonics.

The heavy mineral placer deposits of the southern Oregon coast between Coos Bay and Gold Beach are the result of traditional beach placer deposition that has been preserved by crustal uplift and warping via offshore tectonics. Oregon Resources Corporation (ORC) conducts exploration on identified terraces using a geologic model developed by the ORC team derived from aeromagnetic survey, LIDAR geomorphology mapping, and geologic mapping. To date, the drilling initiated in 1992 and continued in 2007 (Table 1) has delineated a grand total of approximately 8.7 million tons of proved ore reserve grading at 7.5% chromite, 1.6% garnet, and 0.4% zircon. While these are the economic mineral plays at this time, other minerals are found within the heavy mineral suite, including epidote, staurolite, kyanite/sillimanite, ilmenite, rutile, and magnetite. Future exploration work will focus on the continued delineation of identified terraces that fit the ORC team’s geologic model.

Bulk Testwork

With the construction of the company owned pilot plant at Coos Bay, OR completed in 2006, ORC collected and ran a bulk test on ore collected from the South Seven Devils deposit. Under the direction of Todd Lessard, a 300 ton ore sample was processed in the pilot plant, creating a heavy mineral concentrate that was further separated into a chromite foundry sand product at Hazen Research in Denver, CO. Garnet and zircon were separated at North Carolina State University’s Material Research Lab. The created samples are currently being used for sales purposes.