Oregon Resources Corp (ORC) mines for minerals such as chromite, garnet, zircon, titanium, magnetite, etc. within old beaches that are now hundreds of feet above sea level and one to three miles inland.  The deposits that ORC mines are called placer deposits. A placer deposit is a concentration of minerals that are resistant to breaking down by the forces of Mother Nature.

Beach Layers w/ Black Sand

Placers need four things to happen in order to become a deposit. First, there has to be a source for the minerals. In our case, the Klamath Mountains in southern Oregon and northern California include chromite, garnets, zircons, etc. The problem is, however, that they are in very hard rocks that are difficult to mine or spaced so far apart that mining just doesn’t make sense. That leads to the second task required to form a placer:  breaking down the rock and minerals. The Klamath Mountains are being broken down by rain, wind, freezing, thawing, animals burrowing, critters eating, etc. Mother Nature does the work of mining for us by breaking down and freeing up all of the minerals we are interested in.   The third requirement is transportation. Big rivers such as the Illinois, Rogue, Chetco, Coquille, and Sixes flush the broken down sand from the mountain and helps to weed out the minerals that aren’t strong, such as feldspars. These minerals dissolve and enter the rivers as elements, where they are washed to the ocean, helping to keep it salty! The minerals that don’t dissolve are placer minerals….the chromite, garnet, zircon, etc. 

The Final step that is needed involves the ocean. The rivers from the third step carry the sand to the ocean, where the Pacific slams it against the beach, rolling and shaking it up violently. This rounds, sizes, and sorts the good placer minerals from the quartz beach sand. Once a deposit of high concentration is formed, the beach is uplifted by the subduction zone that is offshore. The subduction zone is where two of earth’s crustal plates are colliding, causing great forces.  These forces are great enough to pop the land upwards. This is how the coastal range of Oregon is forming (and moving up as we speak!). The beaches where placer deposits are formed are lifted up too.  When the earth is lifted up, the ocean recedes and forms a new beach and placer. This has continued for several steps or terraces, forming what looks like a staircase, if you were to walk from the east to west.