Magmatic segregation is a general term referring to any process by which one or more minerals become locally concentrated (segregated) during the cooling and crystallization of a magma. Rocks formed as a result of magmatic segregation are called magmatic cumulates. While a magma may start as a homogeneous liquid, magmatic segregation during crystallization can produce an assemblage of cumulates with widely differing compositions. Extreme segregation can sometimes produce monomineralic cumulates; a dramatic example occurs in the Bushveld Igneous Complex of South Africa, where cumulus layers of chromite (iron-magnesium-chromium oxide, the only chromium ore mineral) are encased in cumulus layers of anorthite (calcium-rich feldspar).

Mineral deposits that are magmatic cumulates are only found in mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks (i.e., rocks that are low in silica). This is due to the control exerted by silica on the viscosity of a magma: the higher the silica content, the more viscous a magma and the more slowly segregation can proceed. Highly viscous magmas, such as those of granitic composition, tend to cool and crystallize faster than segregation can proceed. In low-silica (and, hence, low-viscosity) magmas such as gabbro, basalt, and komatiite, mineral grains can float, sink, or be moved so rapidly by flowing magma that segregation can occur before crystallization is complete.

As with most geologic processes that cannot be directly observed, a certain amount of uncertainty exists about how cumulates form. A mineral such as chromite, with a density considerably greater than the magma from which it crystallizes, will tend to sink as soon as it forms. As a result, geologists long held the opinion that cumulates of chromite and other dense minerals formed only by sinking. This simple picture was challenged in 1961 by E. Dale Jackson, a geologist employed by the U.S. Geological Survey, who studied chromite cumulates of the Stillwater Complex in Montana. The findings of Jackson and later workers suggested that cumulates can also be produced by such phenomena as in-place crystallization of monomineralic layers on the floor of a magma chamber or density currents carrying mineral grains from the walls and roof of a magma chamber to the floor. Opinion still remains open, but most geologists now agree that in-place crystallization and density currents are more important in the formation of magmatic cumulates than density sinking.

Three oxide ore minerals form magmatic cumulates: chromite, magnetite, and ilmenite. The world’s largest chromite deposits are all magmatic cumulates; the largest and richest of these is in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa. Cumulus deposits of magnetite make poor iron ores, because cumulus magnetites invariably contain elements such as titanium, manganese, and vanadium by atomic substitution—although vanadiferous magnetites are important as a source of vanadium. In fact, much of the world’s production of this metal comes from cumulus magnetites in the Bushveld Complex.