Porphyry and epithermal mineral deposits form large economic ore bodies that provide the global economy with copper, molybdenum, gold, silver and other byproducts (Re, Te, Se). They form in the upper crust and are related to sulfur- and water-rich intermediate to silicic magmatic sources of hydrothermal fluids that move upward and produce extensive hydrolytic and alkali wall-rock alteration, quartz veins, and sulfides. Porphyry-type deposits are formed above magma chambers where fluids hydrofracture rock at 700–350 °C and at pressures ranging from supra-lithostatic to supra-hydrostatic. The depth of formation ranges from 2 to 10 km and influences orebody geometries and the types and mineralogy of veins, sulfides and wall-rock alteration. The temporal evolution of hydrothermal events is documented by cross-cutting veins and is commonly characterized by a decline in fluid temperature and concordant evolution from potassic alteration to sericitic alteration, with attendant increase in sulfidation state of copper-iron sulfides.

In some localities porphyry copper deposits transition upwards to lower temperature base metal lodes (350–200 °C) and eventually the formation of near surface (<1.5 km depth) intermediate- and high-sulfidation epithermal deposits (~300–120 °C). Extensional environments are often characterized by porphyry molybdenum and low-sulfidation epithermal deposits. In the base metal lode and epithermal environments, mixtures of magmatic and meteoric fluids produce ore fluids at hydrostatic pressures that advect freely both vertically and laterally along permeability provided by faults, joints, and porous lithologies. Wall-rock alteration ranges from hydrolytic to alkali-carbonate, and from high- to low-sulfidation state sulfide assemblages, respectively.

In porphyry, base metal lode, and epithermal environments, geology and the zonation of wall-rock alteration, veins, sulfide assemblages, and metals are useful for exploration.