Economic geology

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economic geology Rocks and unconsolidated surface deposits that contain some valuable commodity in a high enough concentration to be mined for a profit are known as mineral deposits. This applies whether or not they have, or have not, been mined. Such deposits are rare. The study of mineral deposits in order to elucidate how they were formed is recognized as a separate discipline in geological sciences that is known as economic geology. The chemical and physical processes that created these unusual deposits do not differ from those responsible for the formation of other economically uninteresting rocks. However, economic geology endeavours to discover what special combination of these processes occurred to facilitate the genesis of mineral deposits. In the past, the discipline had made great progress based on studies of the structural geology, mineralogy, and global distribution of particular types of deposit. More recently, advances in the geological sciences have provided further valuable tools in the study of mineral deposits. For example, the theory of plate tectonics has enabled economic geologists to explain and predict the distribution of particular types of deposit in terms of processes occuring at colliding and spreading plates. In geochemistry, developments such as the ability to measure the isotopic composition of certain elements, the understanding of how minerals react with high-temperature fluids and with each other, and the accurate analysis of minute concentrations of important trace elements, have resulted in great progress in the study of mineral deposits. The ultimate goal of economic geology is to provide geologists with explanations of how mineral deposits are formed in order to provide a prospecting tool for the location of resources as yet undiscovered.

Bruce W. Mountain