Economic ore deposits are the result of complex, multi-stage geological processes that operate from the scale of mantle and crustal source regions to the scale of individual mineral grains, structures, and ore shoots. Building an ore deposit requires a fertile source, efficient metal mobilization, focused transport through melts or fluids, effective depositional traps, post-ore preservation or upgrading, and, ultimately, a detectable geological footprint. Understanding this complete pathway is essential for both advancing ore deposit science and improving exploration strategies for raw materials.
This session invites contributions that investigate any stage of the mineral system pathway, from metal source to final economic concentration. We welcome studies on metal fertility in mantle, magmatic, metamorphic, sedimentary, and crustal reservoirs; the generation and evolution of ore-forming melts, fluids, brines, or hydrocarbons; and the physical and chemical mechanisms that transport and focus metals. Contributions addressing the triggers of ore deposition, including cooling, boiling, fluid mixing, phase separation, wall-rock reaction, redox change, pressure fluctuations, deformation, and permeability evolution, are especially encouraged.
The session also emphasizes the later history of ore deposits, including remobilization, metamorphic modification, deformation, weathering, supergene enrichment, burial, erosion, and long-term preservation. These processes can enhance, obscure, or destroy economic mineralization and strongly influence the modern expression of ore systems. Studies that connect primary ore-forming mechanisms with present-day exploration footprints are therefore highly relevant.
We encourage multidisciplinary and cross-commodity contributions that integrate field geology, structural geology, petrology, geochemistry, isotope studies, thermodynamic and numerical modelling, experimental work, geophysics, remote sensing, data science, and mineral prospectivity analysis. The session welcomes research on a broad range of deposit types, such as porphyry, skarn, epithermal systems, VMS, sediment-hosted base-metal, magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE and beyond.
By bringing together studies from different commodities, tectonic environments, and methodological approaches, this session aims to develop an integrated understanding of how economic ore deposits are built, modified, and preserved.