230 



UNITED STATES MINERAL RESOURCES 



RESOURCES 



IDENTIFIED AND HYPOTHETICAL RESOURCES 



Fluorspar deposits, although generally small, are 

 relatively abundant and widespread throughout the 

 world. The world's known reserves are adequate to 

 meet the current demand, especially as fluorspar 

 prices rise; improved mining and processing tech- 

 niques have increased reserves substantially over 

 earlier estimates. The beneficiation of fluorite-barite 

 ores, now profitable in the United States, United 

 Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Tunisia, has extended 

 world reserves. Fluorspar is currently one of the 

 most sought-after industrial minerals, and deposits 

 continue to be discovered in many countries. The 

 most recently found deposits are chiefly in the 

 United States, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, United 

 Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Thailand, India, and 

 southern Africa. 



Fluorspar resources are chiefly in shallow, low- 

 temperature, hydrothermal vein, pipe, and manto or 

 stratiform deposits; however, an increasingly im- 

 portant source of fluorspar will be as a coproduct of 

 mining and processing certain ores of iron, lead, 

 zinc, bismuth, tungsten, molybdenum, tin, beryllium, 

 and rare earths that contain fluorite as a minor con- 

 stituent. In the United States it is now profitable to 

 mine ores containing as little as 15-20 percent CaFs 

 if they have sufficient lead or zinc values to compen- 

 sate for the low fluorite content. Molybdenum de- 

 posits of the Western United States, such as at 

 Questa, N. Mex., contain fluorite; and although the 

 percentage is small, the large tonnages of rock 

 processed may warrant extraction of fluorite. Con- 

 tact replacement iron-ore deposits in the Iron 

 Springs district. Iron County, Utah, contain fluorap- 

 atite. Although the fluorine content is less than 1 

 percent, fluorine is being extracted during process- 

 ing of this ore for its iron content. Environmental 

 considerations in the future, in fact, may demand the 

 recovery of fluorine during ore processing so that it 

 is not released into surficial material, the atmos- 

 phere, or surface waters. More and more fluorspar 

 will be recovered elsewhere from mine dumps and 

 tailings resulting from the working of some metalli- 

 ferous deposits, as is now being done in Mexico, the 

 United Kingdom, and Spain. 



The estimate of the world's resources of fluorspar 

 ore in table 44 is based largely on published informa- 

 tion. The figures are rounded, but they indicate 

 orders of magnitude. This new total for the esti- 

 mated fluorspar resources of the world, 190 million 

 tons, agrees well with recent estimates of 150 mil- 

 lion tons by Chermette (1968) and 182 million tons 



Table 44. — Estimated fluorspar resources of the world 



[Millions of short tons of ciude ore. The ratio of crude fluorspar ore i 

 processed fluorspar recovered is about 3:1] 



Area 



United States _. 



Mexico 



Canada 



Europe^ 



Africa' 



Asia^ 



South America " 

 Australia 



Total 



190 



573 



^ Chiefly exploitable economic ore containing 35 percent or more 

 CaF2 or equivalent in combined fluorspar and metal values. The average 

 CaF2 content is about 50 percent. Includes some subeconomic material. 



- Some material of ore grade, but much rock is exploitable only under 

 more favorable economic or technologic conditions. Deposits incompletely 

 known, because few subeconomic fluorspar deposits have been explored. 



3 Chiefly France, Germany. Italy. Spain, United Kingdom, and U.S.S.R. 



* Chiefly Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Rhodesia, South West Africa, 

 Tunisia, and Union of South Africa. 



^ Chiefly China, India. Korea, and Thailand. 



^ Chiefly Argentina and Brazil. 



by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (Wood, 1972). Each of 

 the two countries with the largest resources of 

 fluorspar, Mexico and the United States, has about 

 25 million tons. 



A previous detailed reserve estimate (Van Alstine, 

 1956) for fluorspar deposits of the United States 

 showed 22.5 million tons of commercial ore and about 

 12 million tons of lower grade material containing 

 15-35 percent CaF2. As a result of mining and dis- 

 coveries since 1956, the identified resources in the 

 United States are now estimated at about 25 mil- 

 lion tons, largely in Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, New 

 Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, 

 and Alaska. Nearly all of this resource is believed 

 amenable to processing into acid- and metallurgical- 

 grade products, the latter grade especially by pel- 

 letizing flotation concentrates. 



As European fluorspar consumption continues to 

 increase, the substantial exports from Italy and 

 Spain to the United States probably will not be 

 available. This situation should make the mining of 

 even more low-grade resources profitable and should 

 stimulate further domestic exploration. Detailed in- 

 formation is lacking on which to base accurate esti- 

 mates of hypothetical resources of most low-grade 

 fluorspar deposits in foreign countries. 



Marine phosphate rock, by far the world's largest 

 fluorine resource, generally contains about 3 percent 

 fluorine. Resources of phosphate rock in the United 

 States are chiefly in Florida, North Carolina, Ten- 

 nessee, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Re- 

 serves there are about 10 billion tons of phosphate 

 rock, and hypothetical resources have been estimated 

 at more than 60 billion tons ; the latter class repre- 

 sents a potential fluorine resource of about 2 billion 

 tons and is equivalent to about 4 billion tons of 



