Abstract
Air, sea, surface water and soil support life, from which comes our food; the fossil remains of life, that is: coal, oil and gas, together with solar and terrestrial radiation provide energy; but almost all the artifacts of human civilization are made from substances taken from the earth’s crust. This book deals specifically with the geology of economically workable deposits of the solid, non-combustible Mineral resources of the earth. Its purpose is to describe the geology of a carefully selected group of Mineral deposits; to show where they are, what they consist of, how big they are and how they are related to the geological environment in which they occur. It is also intended to show what place each example has in the scientific study of deposits, and its importance as part of the natural resources available to mankind.
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Further Reading
Smirnov, V. I. (1976) (English edition), Geology of Mineral Deposit. Trans, of Geologica Poleznykh Iskopaemykh, M.I.R. Moscow, 1962. [This is the most modern book on the subject in English and one of the most comprehensive ever to be published. The majority, but by no means all, of the material is drawn from examples of deposits in the U.S.S.R. It is a very good book and is well-illustrated, but is rather better on magmatic and hydrothermal deposits than those in sediments.]
Ridge, J. D. (1976), Annotated Bibliographies of Mineral Deposits in Africa, Asia (except U.S.S.R.) and Australi. Pergamon, Oxford, 546 p.
Ridge, J. D. (1972), Annotated Bibliographies of Mineral Deposits in the Western Hemisphere. Geol. Soc. Am. Me. 31., 681 p. [These two excellent volumes are indispensable for anyone who wishes to know more about Mineral deposits. The bibliographies are very comprehensive and the annotations are in the form of critical essays, summarizing the works of the major authors on each deposit, with liberal doses of Ridge’s own rather strict Lindgrenian ideas. One can regret that the two volumes are not published by the same house, because they usually end up at opposite ends of your library.]
Wolf, K. H., ed. (1976), Handbook of Strata-bound and Stratiform Ore Deposit. 7 volumes, Elsevier, Amsterdam. [This is a volume of papers by many different authors that seeks to compliment the rather lean treatment given to such deposits in other texts. It contains a lot of very useful information but it could have been put more briefly.]
Stanton, R. L. (1972), Ore Petrology. McGraw-Hill, New York, 731p. [Probably the best modern text covering the methodology of investigation of Mineral deposits from the pure scientific point of view. It also covers the geological environment of occurrence of quite a range of examples, and gives a very balanced treatment of genetic theories.]
Nicolini, P. (1970), Gîtologie des Concentrations Minérales Stratiform. Gauthur-Villars. [The great statement of position of the syngenetic school. Not as wide a coverage as Wolf, but much more compact. Good compliment to texts that do not deal properly with deposits in sediments. Many of the examples covered would not be called stratiform by English writers. He includes many which would be better called strata-bound.]
Park, C. F. and Macdiarmid, R. A. (1964), Ore Deposits. Freeman, San Franciso, 522p. [Quite a good introductory text for students, but it has a heavy emphasis on American examples, and on classical magmatic hydrothermal interpretations.]
Routhier, P. (1963), Les Gisements Métallifères. Masson, Paris, 2 vols, 867P and 408p. [This mammoth work is comprehensive and gives a very balanced view of genetic theory; well worth more attention than it normally receives from readers outside French-speaking countries. In addition to the main sections on the geology of deposits, it also covers the technological aspects of mining geology, but it is not so good on this aspect.]
Bates, R. L. (1960), Geology of the Industrial Rocks and Minerals. Harper, New York, 441p. [Almost the only book on the other half of the subject, an indispensable complement to the many texts that emphasize metalliferous deposits.]
Bateman, A. M. (1942), Economic Mineral Deposit. Wiley, New York, 916p. [For many years a standard textbook for students and still interesting, with lots of background information. Somewhat confusing to geologists at times because the material is arranged substance by substance. It also deals with coal, oil and gas, but the treatment is poor compared with metalliferous deposits.]
Lindgren, W. (1913), (2nd edition 1933) Mineral Deposits. McGraw- Hill, New York, 930p. [The most famous and influential book ever written on the subject, still useful for reference and has lasted better than most texts.]
Crook, T. (1933), History of the Theory of Ore Deposits. Murby, London, 163p. [Fascinating little book that traces the origin of the classical hydrothermal theory from ancient times; badly needs updating.]
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© 1979 Colin J. Dixon
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Dixon, C.J. (1979). Introduction. In: Atlas of Economic Mineral Deposits. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6511-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6511-2_1
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