616 



UNITED STATES MINERAL RESOURCES 



million tons (Cote, 1971), that in Mexican caprocks 

 an indicated resource of 80 million tons (table 127) . 

 Both countries also are well endowed with deposits 

 of base-metal suliides and with bedded gypsum from 

 which sulfur can be recovered. Canada also has vast 

 resources of tar sands, whose bitumens contain an 

 average of 4.5 percent by weight of sulfur, which 

 amounts to a multibillion ton resource of sulfur. 

 The 40 million tons shown in table 127 as the identi- 

 fied sulfur resources of the Canadian tar sands is 

 that sulfur currently available for extraction in 

 existing processing facilities. Some petroleum in 

 southeastern Mexico contains enough sulfur to war- 

 rant its recovery during refining. 



The hypothetical and speculative resource data 

 shown in table 127 summarize those resources whose 

 discovery can be reasonably expected in known min- 

 eral districts and petroliferous areas and in untested 

 regions. The postulated resource of 1,800 million tons 

 of sulfur in tar sands should perhaps be listed partly 

 as a subeconomic identified resource. Speculative re- 

 sources of sulfur in Mexico include an estimated 50 

 million tons of elemental sulfur in caprocks on salt 

 diapirs in the southeastern part of the country. 

 These deposits will be similar to those known in the 

 gulf coast of the United States. 



OTHER COUNTRIES 



Sulfur resources outside of North America also 

 are vast ; apparent reserves totaling nearly 2 billion 

 tons have been estimated recently by Lewis (1970). 

 Only the most notable concentrations are cited in 

 the following brief discussion. 



1. Elemental sulfur deposits containing an identi- 

 fied resource of 100 million tons occur in 

 bedded anhydrite of Miocene age in southern 

 Poland. The belt of anhydrite extends into the 

 U.S.S.R., where other sulfur deposits prob- 

 ably occur. Although the belt in the U.S.S.R. 

 is not now petroliferous, hydrocarbons in the 

 past evidently leaked upward into it at many 

 places. The greatest potential for discovery 

 of elemental sulfur outside the United States 

 is in the Middle East, where the world's 

 greatest accumulations of hydrocarbons coin- 

 cide with extensive anhydrite beds. In Iraq, 

 one deposit of elemental sulfur in anhydrite 

 of Miocene age contains an identified resource 

 of 200 million tons of sulfur. Most of the 

 readily available sulfur in the bedded evap- 

 orites of Sicily has been mined. 



The salt diapirs of northern Europe and of 

 the Middle East seem to be barren of sulfur 

 deposits. Possibilities exist for caprock sul- 



fur mineralization in the northern Caspian 

 area and northern Siberia in the U.S.S.R., 

 perhaps over the diapirs lying under the Per- 

 sian Gulf and under the North Sea, and over 

 those diapers in the Canadian Arctic Islands. 

 Neither the Canadian nor the North Sea areas 

 would favor low-cost exploitation of any sul- 

 fur discovered. 



2. Hydrogen sulfide amenable to extraction from 



sour natural gas is moderately abundant in 

 France and in eastern Europe, but the largest 

 resource of such sulfur is in the Middle East, 

 where about 500 million tons occurs in the 

 very large natural gas resources. 



3. The petroleum of the Middle East perhaps con- 



tains about 300 million tons of sulfur, and 

 that of Venezuela at least 30 million tons. 



4. Resources of sulfur in pyrite deposits are large 



and widespread. At least 500 million tons of 

 sulfur occurs in Spanish deposits and perhaps 

 an equivalent amount may occur in the pyrite 

 deposits elsewhere in Europe. Such resources 

 also are abundant in South America, the Mid- 

 dle East, Africa, and Australia. 



5. Elemental sulfur in volcanic rocks in the circum- 



Pacific belt provides a resource totaling 100- 

 200 million tons. Japan and Chile have most 

 of these resources. Pyrite in volcanic deposits 

 in this region also constitutes a large re- 

 source. 



6. Outside North America, at least 200 millon tons 



of sulfur occur in the known base-metal sul- 

 fide deposits scattered on all other continents. 

 Pyrite included in these ores also constitutes 

 an appreciable resource of sulfur. 



7. Anhydrite and gypsum underlie large areas on 



every continent (McKelvey and Wang, 1970) 

 and form an almost unlimited resource of 

 sulfur. 



8. Tar sands are abundant in Venezuela, but the 



tonnage of their sulfur never has been cal- 

 culated. 



9. Extrapolating the average sulfur content of 



coal in the United States to that in coal out- 

 side North America, it would seem that at 

 least 180 billion tons of sulfur occurs in the 

 coal on other continents. 



10. Oil shale and shale rich in organic matter seem 



to contain at least as much sulfur as does 

 coal; therefore, the sulfur resources in such 

 accumulations outside North America could 

 reach several hundred billion tons. 

 Lastly, sea water contains sulfate ions in low 



