Giant metallic deposits: Future sources of industrial metals

Abstract

Metals in the earth's crust are very unevenly distributed. Traditionally, a small number of ore deposits, districts or countries have dominated the world supply and have influenced commodity prices. The importance of exceptionally large, or rich, deposits has greatly increased in the age of globalization when a small number of international corporations dominate the metals market, based on few very large ore deposits. Search for giant orebodies thus drives the exploration industry, not only the in-house teams of large internationals, but also the hundreds of smaller companies hoping to sell their significant discoveries to the "big boys". Geological characteristics of giant metallic deposits and their setting, and the politico-economic constraints of access and exploitation in prospective areas, have been a hot topic in the past fifteen years. But the published findings have been one-sided, scattered and fragmented. This is the first comprehensive book on the subject that provides a solid body of facts rather than rapidly changing theories. It is written by the author of the Empirical Metallogeny book series and founder of the Data Metallogenica © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.