The emphasis of this volume is on the characterization of uranium deposits. Chapter 1 includes an introductory note in the form of a brief summary of world uranium resources and their definitions with respect to confidence classes and cost categories. This was considered justified insofar as an understanding of an ore deposit cannot be achieved from purely geological parameters. Economic considerations have to be included. Demand for the commodity and, in the western world, related price/cost factors dictate and define whether a localized metal concentration is a deposit that can be profitably exploited presently or in the future, or whether it is a mineral occurrence of only scientific value.

In the winter of 1969 a series of storms in the ‘drylands’ of southern California caused serious soil erosion, numerous landslides, and widespread flooding. Over a hundred people were killed, thousands of homes and other buildings were ruined, the total estimated damage exceeded $200 million, the lives of several million people in the sprawling Los Angeles metropolis were disrupted, and the resources of the community had to be mobilized to cope with the emergency and rehabilitate the region at a cost of well over $8 million (US Corps of Engineers, 1969). The dominant environmental processes responsible for this crisis - erosion, slope failure, and flooding - are geomorphological problems, problems relating to the nature of the land surface and the forces that act upon it. <...>

Wawa has long been a center of mineral exploration activity and diamonds have been reported in the area since the 1930s. However, diamond exploration did not begin in the area in earnest until 1991. In 1993, Sandor Surmacz and Marcelle Hauseux of Saminex began a prospecting program in the area which culminated in their discovery of the “Sandor” diamond occurrence in an outcrop on the east side of the Trans-Canada Highway.

Over the last 20 to 30 years there has developed а large body of literature оп the statistical treatment of geochemical data. Some of this literature is in the form of warnings to the geochemical community that their practices are not sufficiently statistically rigorous. Other papers are concerned with improving the statistical techniques current amongst geochemists and they provide methods which are more appropriate to the peculiar properties of some geochemical data. Unfortunately, thete is а tendency to leave the whole subject of the statistical treatment of geochemical data 'to the experts' and consequently а large part of this literature is ignored Ьу most geochemists. This тау in part Ье because the journals in which the papers are located are specific to mathematical geology. Another reason, however, is that mathematical geologists tend to write in order to communicate with other mathematicians rather than with geochemists. Whatever the reason, the net effect is that for а long time geo-statisticians have Ьееп advising geochemists in the practice of their art and yet for the most part their words have seemed irrelevant and have gone unheeded <...>