Giant Metallic Deposits

Metals in the earth's crust are very unevenly distributed and, 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, practically anywhere in the world. Search for giant orebodies thus drives the exploration industry: not only the in-house teams of large internationals, but also hundreds of junior 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 to and exploitation in prospective areas have been a "hot topic" in the past fifteen years, but the knowledge generated and published has been one-sided, scattered and fragmented. This is the first comprehensive book on the subject that provides body of solid facts rather than rapidly changing theories, written by author of the Empirical Metallogeny book series and founder of the Data Metallogenica visual knowledge system on mineral deposits of the world, who has had an almost 40 years long international academic and industrial experience. The book will provide abundant material for comparative research in metallogeny, practical information for the explorationists as to where to look for the "elephants", and some inspiration for commodity investors.

From the reviews:

"Another humdinger of a hand or reference book by Laznicka’s decades-long intensive global studies in ‘making sense’ of our metalliferous resources. … Any exploration company’s library … university and research institution’s library, any Earth-science and resource-economist-type researcher (including planner, politician, or bureaucrat) on any level of activity, must have a copy. … I can … highly recommend all his publications, including of course the present one. The publishers must be congratulated for keeping the price down to a comparatively reasonable level." (Karl Wolf, The Australian Geologist, September, 2006)

"Encompassing over 700 pages, Peter Laznicka’s newly published volume gives a full illustration of the source of the metals required to support our modern lifestyle. These materials provide the means to increase our living standards. … The sections also do a good job illustrating most of the world’s major mines. … In a geological context, this gives scale to the overwhelming importance of global tectonics for the formation of giant mineral deposits." (Michael Forrest, Materials World, August 2007)

"In this book, Peter Laznicka brings over 40 years of experience with more than 4000 ore deposits in 140 countries to bear on the problem of giant ore deposits, which he says will supply a growing proportion of future world demand. The book is divided into three sections. … its real value is in the wealth of detail about giant ore deposits. Anyone interested in Earth’s capacity to generate large geochemical anomalies will find this book a good place to start." (Stephen E. Kesler, The Journal of Geology, March, 2008)

"This book … is focused on giant mineral deposits that are responsible for the bulk of the world’s metallic ores. … The book is divided into three sections … . The hardbound volume is well put together by the publisher … . there is a lot of valuable compilation material hidden in the volume such that it does belong in the ore deposits section of any good research library. … it could serve as a valuable resource for geologic information of giant ore deposits." (Richard J. Goldfarb, Economic Geology, Vol. 110, 2006)