Global Mineral Resource Assessment

Introduction

In response to the growing demand for information on the global mineral-resource base, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is conducting the Quantitative Global Mineral Resource Assessment Project (GMRAP), a cooperative international project, begun in 2002, to assess the world's undiscovered nonfuel mineral resources.

Primary Objectives

The USGS conducts national and global assessments of resources (mineral, energy, water, biologic) to provide science in support of decisionmaking.  Mineral resource assessments provide a synthesis of available information about where mineral deposits are known and suspected in the Earth’s crust, what commodities may be present, and estimates of amounts of resources that may be present in undiscovered deposits.  The Global Mineral Resource Assessment Project started in 2002 as a cooperative international effort to assess the world’s undiscovered nonfuel mineral resources.  Primary objectives are to:

• Outline the regional locations and estimate the probable amounts of the world’s undiscovered resources of copper, platinum-group elements (PGE), and potash in selected types of mineral deposits to depths of 1 to 3 kilometers below the Earth’s surface.
• Provide the first globally consistent and comprehensive analysis of undiscovered nonfuel mineral resources to provide all nations with a regional and global context for evaluating their mineral resources, planning for new mineral exploration and anticipating the economic, environmental, and social impacts of mineral development, and making land use decisions.

The project emphasizes the most important types of mineral deposits for world supply of copper, platinum-group elements (PGE) and nickel, and potash.

Go to the Quantitative Global Mineral-Resource Assessments home page for more information.

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Reports

Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–A: Porphyry Copper Assessment of Mexico, by Jane M. Hammarstrom, Gilpin R. Robinson, Jr., Steve Ludington, Floyd Gray, Benjamin J. Drenth, Francisco Cendejas-Cruz, Enrique Espinosa, Efrén Pérez-Segura, Martín Valencia-Moreno, José Luis Rodríguez-Castañeda, Rigoberto Vásquez-Mendoza, and Lukas Zürcher

Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–B: Aggregation of Estimated Numbers of Undiscovered Deposits—an R-script with an Example from the Chu Sarysu Basin, Kazakhtan, by John H. Schuenemeyer, Michael L. Zientek, and Stephen E. Box

Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–C, v. 1.1: Porphyry Copper Assessment of British Columbia and Yukon Territory, Canada, by Mark J. Mihalasky, Arthur A. Bookstrom, Thomas P. Frost, and Steve Ludington, with contributions from James M. Logan, Andre Panteleyev, and Grant Abbott

Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–D: Porphyry Copper Assessment of Southeast Asia and Melanesia, by Jane M. Hammarstrom, Arthur A. Bookstrom, Connie L. Dicken, Benjamin J. Drenth, Steve Ludington, Gilpin R. Robinson, Jr., Bambang Tjahjono Setiabudi, Wudhikarn Sukserm, Dwi Nugroho Sunuhadi, Alexander Yan Sze Wah, and Michael L. Zientek, with contributions from Dennis P. Cox, Pairatt Jarnyaharn, Gwaibo Kopi, Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc, Pichai Otarawanna, Chen Shick Pei, Ung Phany, Nguyen Vay Quy, Takehiro Sakimoto, Dulcie Saroa, Norberta Soares da Costa, Sieng Sotham, I.M. Sim, Nguyen Nhu Trung, Somob Wongsomasak, Boonsong Yokarti, and Khin Zaw

Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–E: Sandstone Copper Assessment of the Chu-Sarysu Basin, Central Kazakhstan, by Stephen E. Box, Boris Syusyura, Timothy S. Hayes, Cliff D. Taylor, Michael L. Zientek, Murray W. Hitzman, Reimar Seltmann, Vladimir Chechetkin, Alla Dolgopolova, Pamela M. Cossette, and John C. Wallis

Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–F: Porphyry Copper Assessment of the Tibetan Plateau, China, by Steve Ludington, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Gilpin R. Robinson, Jr., John C. Mars, and Robert J. Miller, based on contributions of Yan Guangsheng, Peng Qiuming, Lian Changyun, Mao Jingwen, Li Jinyi, Xiao Keyan, Qiu Ruizhao, Shao Jianbao, Shai Gangyi, and Du Yuliang, and Dennis Cox

Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–G: Porphyry Copper Assessment of the Mesozoic of East Asia—China, Vietnam, North Korea, Mongolia, and Russia, by Steve Ludington, Mark J. Mihalasky, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Gilpin R. Robinson, Jr., Thomas P. Frost, Kathleen D. Gans, Thomas D. Light, Robert J. Miller, and Dmitriy Alexeiev; based on contributions of Yan Guangsheng, Lian Changyun, Mao Jingwen, Li Jinyi, Xiao Keyan, Qiu Ruizhao, Shao Jianbao, Zhai Gangyi, Du Yuliang, Arthur A. Bookstrom, and Andre Panteleyev

Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–H, v. 1.1: Economic Filters for Evaluating Porphyry Copper Deposit Resource Assessments Using Grade-Tonnage Deposit Models, with Examples from the U.S. Geological Survey Global Mineral Resource Assessment, by Gilpin R. Robinson, Jr., and W. David Menzie

Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–J: Descriptive Models, Grade-Tonnage Relations, and Databases for the Assessment of Sediment-Hosted Copper Deposits—With Emphasis on Deposits in the Central African Copperbelt, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, by Cliff D. Taylor, J. Douglas Causey, Paul D. Denning, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Timothy S. Hayes, John D. Horton, Michael J. Kirschbaum, Heather L. Parks, Anna B. Wilson, Niki E. Wintzer, and Michael L. Zientek

Last modified May 10, 2013
First posted September 29, 2010