Conceptual models that describe the essential characteristics of groups of similar deposits have a  long and useful role in geology. The first models were undoubtedly empirical attempts to extend previous experiences into future success. An example might be the seeking of additional gold nuggets in a stream in which one nugget had already been found, and the extension of that model to include other streams as well. Emphasis within the U.S. Geological Survey on the synthesis of mineral deposit models (as contrasted with a long line of descriptive and genetic studies of specific ore deposits) began with the collation by R. L. Erickson (1982) of 48 models. The 85 descriptive deposit models and 60 grade-tonnage models presented here are the culmination of a process that began in 1983 as part of the USGS-INGEOMINAS Cooperative Mineral Resource Assessment of Colombia (Hodges and others, 1984). Effective cooperation on this project required that U.S. and Colombian geologists agree on a classification of mineral deposits, and effective resource assessment of such a broad region required that grade-tonnage models be created for a large

number of mineral deposit types. A concise one-page format for descriptive models was drawn up by Dennis CO X, Donald Singer, and Byron Berger, and Singer devised a graphical way of presenting grade and tonnage data. Sixty-five descriptive models (Cox, 1983a and b) and 37 grade-tonnage models (Singer and Mosier, 1983a and b) were applied to the Colombian project. Because interest in these models ranged far beyond the Colombian activity, it was decided to enlarge the number of models and to include other aspects of mineral deposit modeling. Our colleagues in

the Geological Survey of Canada have preceded this effort by publishing a superb compilation of models of deposits important in Canada (Eckstrand, 1984). Not urprisingly, our models converge quite well, and in several cases we have drawn freely from the Canadian publication.