Global Metal Resources: Geological Processes in Space and Time

Mineral resources have always been an essential foundation of human civilization. Current and projected economic growth, especially in China and India, highlight an increasing worldwide need for metals, as reflected by prices that are near historic highs for a wide range of mined commodities. Even with increased recycling and substitution, increasing demand requires that metals and other rare elements will continue to be mined from ore deposits. Such deposits can only be utilized in an environmentally responsible manner, if the ore elements are highly enriched by natural chemical and physical processes. These processes operate over a great range of spatial and temporal scales in the earth’s interior or at its surface, from the earliest geological records of our planet to the present day.

This Gordon Conference will bring together a diverse group of geoscientists from the resource industry, academia and government, with the aim of analyzing the state of our understanding of these ore-forming processes. A major emphasis will be on assessing global-scale processes that generate large metal provinces during distinct periods of earth’s evolution. Our prime aim is to identify future directions for research that will not only address the pressing issue of resource supply, but also will continue to shed light on how ore deposits act as indicators of large-scale tectonic, magmatic, sedimentary, metamorphic and others processes in Earth’s history.