Prepared in cooperation with the
Deposit Modeling Program,
International Union of Geological Sciences,
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Proceedings for a
Workshop on Deposit Modeling,
Mineral Resource Assessment, and
Their Role in Sustainable Development
Published 2007
Version 1.0
PDF (13,459 KB, 148 pages)
Preface
The world's use of nonfuel mineral resources continues to increase to support a growing population and increasing standards of living. The ability to meet this increasing demand is affected especially by concerns about possible environmental degradation associated with minerals production and by competing land uses. What information does the world need to support global minerals development in a sustainable way?
Informed planning and decisions concerning sustainability and future mineral resource supply require a long–term perspective and an integrated approach to resource, land use, economic, and environmental management worldwide. Such perspective and approach require unbiased information on the global distribution of identified and especially undiscovered resources, the economic and political factors influencing their development, and the potential environmental consequences of their exploitation.
The U.S. Geological Survey and the former Deposit Modeling Program of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sponsored a workshop on "Deposit Modeling, Mineral Resource Assessment, and Their Role in Sustainable Development" at the 31st International Geological Congress (IGC) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 18–19, 2000. The purpose of the workshop was to review the state-of-the-art in mineral deposit modeling and resource assessment and to examine the role of global assessments of nonfuel mineral resources in sustainable development.
The workshop addressed questions such as the following: Which of the available mineral deposit models and assessment methods are best suited for predicting the locations, deposit types, and amounts of undiscovered nonfuel mineral resources remaining in the world? What is the availability of global geologic, mineral deposit, and mineral exploration information? How can mineral resource assessments be used to address economic and environmental issues? Presentations included overviews of assessment methods applied in previous national and other small-scale assessments of large regions and of the resulting assessment products and their uses.
Twenty-seven people from Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Peru, Slovenia, South Africa, United States, and Venezuela participated in the 2-day post-Congress workshop. The attendees represented academia, government, environmental organizations, and the mining industry.
The workshop agenda, extended abstracts, and participant biographies were published previously in the following report:
Briskey, J.A., and Schulz, K.J, eds., 2002, Agenda, extended abstracts, and bibliographies for a Workshop on Deposit Modeling, Mineral Resource Assessment, and Their Role in Sustainable Development—31st International Geological Congress [Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 18–19, 2000]: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 02–423, 85 p. on one CD-ROM. (Available online at
pubs.usgs.gov/of/2002/of02–423/.)
Report
This report is available in Adobe Reader format. Right-click (PC) or control–click (Macintosh) on the links to download the PDF files. Each chapter is Section–508 (opens a new page) compliant.
| Paper Title | PDF link |
|---|---|
| Entire Report | 13,459 KB (148 pages) |
| Covers | 2,270 KB (3 pages) |
| Title Page, Preface, Conversion Factors, and Contents | 717 KB (6 pages) |
| Keynote Address: | |
| Global Nonfuel Mineral Resources and Sustainability By Friedrich-Wilhelm Wellmer and Jens Dieter Becker-Platen (Also available as HTML) |
1,894 KB (16 pages) |
| Uses of a Global Mineral Resource Assessment: | |
| The Contributions of Geologic Information to Economic, Social, and Environmental Sustainability By Deborah J. Shields |
752 KB (2 pages) |
| Environmental Planning Issues and a Conceptual Global Assessment of Undiscovered Nonfuel Mineral Resources By Joseph A. Briskey, Klaus J. Schulz, John P. Mosesso, Lief R. Horwitz, and Charles G. Cunningham |
2,490 KB (10 pages) |
| Who Will Use a Global Mineral Resource Assessment? An Environmental Perspective By Penny Flick Langhammer |
793 KB (2 pages) |
| Minerals, Biodiversity, and Choices By Charles G. Cunningham, Walter J. Bawiec, Klaus J. Schulz, Joseph A. Briskey, James F. Carlin, Jr., and David M. Sutphin |
2,923 KB (4 pages) |
| Sustainable Development and Nonrenewable Resources—A Multilateral Perspective By George A. Nooten |
771 KB (6 pages) |
| Mineral Resources Information and Socioeconomic Development By Gotthard Walser |
718 KB (1 page) |
| Economics and Environment as Factors of Sustainable Development of Siberian Mineral Resources By N.L. Dobretsov, A.V. Kanygin, and A.E. Kontorovich |
1,277 KB (12 pages) |
| Mineral Supply and Demand into the 21st Century By Stephen E. Kesler |
943 KB (8 pages) |
| Global Mineral Exploration and Production—The Impact of Technology By Michael D. Doggett |
767 KB (6 pages) |
| Who Will Use a Global Mineral Resource Assessment? An Industry Perspective By G.E. McKelvey |
717 KB (2 pages) |
| Mineral Resource Assessment Methodologies: | |
| Deposit Models and Their Application in Mineral Resource Assessments By Donald A. Singer and Vladimir I. Berger |
1,400 KB (8 pages) |
| Estimating Amounts of Undiscovered Mineral Resources By Donald A. Singer |
1,214 KB (8 pages) |
| Overview of Methodology of Combined Regional Metallogenic and Tectonic Analysis By Warren J. Nokleberg, Thomas K. Bundtzen, Kenneth M. Dawson, Roman A. Eremin, Nikolai A. Goryachev, Alexander I. Khanchuk, James W.H. Monger, Alexander A. Obolenskiy, Leonid M. Parfenov, Vladimir V. Ratkin, Sergey M. Rodionov, and Vladimir I. Shpikerman |
1,637 KB (15 pages) |
| Data Needs and Availability: | |
| Digital Inventory of Bedrock and Mineral Deposit Geology By Lesley Chorlton, Robert Laramée, David Sinclair, and Elizabeth Hillary |
1,526 KB (13 pages) |
| Status of Metallogenic Mapping in the World Today—With Special Reference to the Digital Metallogenic Map of Africa By Erik Hammerbeck and Milica Veselinovic–Williams |
1,545 KB (10 pages) |
| The Use of Mineral Occurrence and Geologic Databases in Quantitative Mineral Resource Assessment By Bruce R. Lipin and Walter J. Bawiec |
3,720 KB (6 pages) |
| Example of Continental–Scale Mineral Resource Assessments: | |
| U.S. Geological Survey National Mineral Resource Assessment—An Estimate of Undiscovered Deposits of Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, and Zinc in the United States By Klaus J. Schulz and Joseph A. Briskey |
933 KB (5 pages) |
| Author Biographies | 719 KB (7 pages) |
Suggested citation:
Briskey, J.A., and Schulz, K.J., eds., 2007, Proceedings for a Workshop on Deposit Modeling, Mineral Resource Assessment, and Their Role in Sustainable Development: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1294, 143 p.
Contact
The printed version of this publication is available from the USGS Store:
USGS Information Services, Box 25286,
Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225
e–mail: infoservices@usgs.gov
Telephone: 1–888–ASK–USGS.
For questions about the content of this report, contact Joseph A. Briskey
