Chapter 10 - Implications for global exploration

Abstract

Mineral resources have always been recognized by economic geologists as essentially nonrenewable resources from which metals can be mined from mineral deposits within a variety of mineral systems. As discussed earlier, these mineral resources represent the products of exceptionally rare conjunctions of geological processes at specific places and at specific times in Earth history. Throughout human exploitation, particularly since the Industrial Revolution, these finite resources have systematically declined with generally progressively lower-grade deposits being mined using increasingly greater amounts of conventional energy and producing greater amounts of waste materials on the Earth’s surface. Net zero policies to combat climate change are providing an unprecedented demand for both conventional and critical metals. Economic geologists need to improve their exploration performance and discover more ore deposits. This starts at the province selection scale where exploration involves conceptual targeting before the application of technological methodologies. This chapter identifies some of the critical parameters that should be considered at this conceptual stage in exploration where expenditure is low, geological thought processes precede high-cost geochemical and geophysical exploration, and ultimate success requires superior concepts.