This is the second of a two-part special issue of Economic Geology devoted to Archean ore deposits. The first part of the special issue (Vol. 107, No. 5) contains six papers that discuss craton to deposit-scale controls on komatiite-associated Ni-Cu-(PGE) deposits (Barnes and Fiorentini, 2012; Collins et al., 2012; Fiorentini et al., 2012; Heggie et al., 2012a, b; Taranovic et al., 2012) and six papers that discuss the diversity and key aspects of greenstone-hosted Au deposits (Cote-Mantha et al., 2012; Garde et al., 2012; Leclerc et al., 2012; Mercier-Langevin et al., 2012b; Schneider et al., 2012; Sherlock et al., 2012). A general introduction to the special issue and an overview of some implications for exploration for greenstone-hosted Au and komatiite-associated Ni-Cu-(PGE) deposits in ancient belts is given in Mercier-Langevin et al. (2012a). The ten papers in this second part of the special issue discuss specific aspects of Archean volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits. The Archean, which represents more than one-third of Earth’s history, was a prolific period for the formation of VMS deposits (Franklin et al., 2005). Most of these deposits formed within a comparatively narrow time interval between 2740 and 2690 Ma in the Neoarchean. Approximately 8% of the global VMS tonnage (production, reserves, and geologic resources) is contained within deposits of Archean age (Fig. 1A). Given the low degree of preservation of Archean crust compared to Phanerozoic crust (e.g., Veizer, 1988), the abundance of Archean VMS deposits is remarkable. Proterozoic VMS deposits account for approximately 20% of the global VMS tonnage, whereas the Phanerozoic deposits contain 72% of the global tonnage. The latter is due, in large part, to giant VMS deposits of the Iberian Pyrite Belt in Spain and Portugal, the Urals in Russia, the Rudny …