Within the last decade, the high and continuing demand for gold has prompted a global gold rush on a scale never before seen, not even in the heady days of Ballarat, California and the Yukon. Gold is being sought on every continent and, with very few exceptions, in every country around the world. Such interest and fierce competition has demanded considerable innovation and improvement in exploration techniques paralleled by a rapid expansion of the geological database and consequent genetic modelling for the many different types of gold deposits now recognized.

The Republic of South Africa is a metal producer of the first rank. Gold is the most important of the metals and up to the end of 1971, U.S.$ 32 billion had been realized from its sale. This figure was equivalent to 80% of the total value of all metals sold. The gold province is located on the Kaapvaal craton which is composed of Precambrian sedimentary-volcanic and granite-greenstone assemblages ranging in age from 1,750 to 3,500 million years. This craton forms the southern part of the Southern African Shield. No significant gold mineralization has yet been found beyond the boundaries of this shield. On the Kaapvaal craton, five Proterozoic sedimentary-volcanic basins lie on an Archean basement.  <...>

The geology, tectonics and stratigraphy of the Monchegorsk region (Kola Peninsula, Russia) is briefly described in the guidebook. The geological structure, ore localization and mineralogy of Cu-Ni-PGE and Cr occurrences in the major layered intrusions (Monchepluton, Imandra lopolith, Monchetundra intrusion) are presented in more detail.

Air, sea, surface water and soil support life, from which comes our food; the fossil remains of life, that is: coal, oil and gas, together with solar and terrestrial radiation provide energy; but almost all the artifacts of human civilization are made from substances taken from the earth's crust.

We are facing a global mineral resource crisis. In fact, we have two of them. First, Earth has a finite supply of minerals for a population that is growing faster than at any time in history
(Figure 1.1). Second, mineral consumption is growing even faster than the population. Until recently, we were deeply concerned that most minerals were used in more developed countries (MDCs) with smaller consumption in less developed countries (LDCs) (Table 1.1).

Hydrophobic Agglomeration of Fine Particles

Electrokinetic Behaviour of Sulphide Minerals: A Contribution to the Chemistry of Flotation

Bacterial Leaching of Minerals

Legal Framework for Environmental Protection in Mineral Processing Activities

Air-Pollutant Emissions and Imissions from Metallurgical Industry

Electrochemical Approach to Pollutants Removal and Destruction

Minerals and metals are essential components for the growth of human society. The need to survive taught prehistoric Paleolithic men the use of stones as tools as early as 20,000 years ago. The discovery of minerals, their exploitation, and use became many-fold with the advent of civilization and is continuing today. A mineral deposit is too small in size compared to the vast Earth’s crust. Near-surface deposits have been discovered over the centuries, ores have been mined, and metals extracted. The future search for concealed types, rarely showing surface signatures, will be opportunities and challenges. New discoveries will require state-of-the-art exploration techniques, trained labor, scientific knowledge, adequate experience, high-end data processing systems, and interpretation skills <...>

Since the arrival of European colonists in New York, the extraction of mineral wealth has been an important societal goal. Mining, then and now, provides the raw materials for consumer goods. Iron was used for cooking utensils and stoves, among other things. It was the basis for many construction projects. The availability of “hydraulic” cement was as important in the success of the Erie Canal as it is to the maintenance of the New York State Thruway. Mines provided materials to improve the standard of living of the populace. Late nineteenth century clay mines in the Hudson River Valley provided clay to make literally billions of bricks used to replace the highly flammable wooden building materials of New York City. The State of New York has, since the 1980s, ranked about fifteenth in the nation in terms of mineral value extracted annually.

Fruta del Norte is a completely concealed and extraordinarily well preserved epithermal gold-silver deposit located in the remote Cordillera del Cóndor mountain ranges of southeastern Ecuador. Currently defined resources in a single, steep, relatively small body, displaying exceptional grade continuity, contain 9.81 million ounces (Moz) of gold and 15.0 Moz of silver, with an indicated resource grade of 9.59 g/t Au and 12.9 g/t Ag. The deposit was discovered in early 2006 during a greenfields program conducted by Aurelian Resources, a Canadian junior explorer. Discovery resulted from systematic drill testing of a conceptual geologic model, which predicted that auriferous veins would be present in andesitic volcanic rocks inferred to underlie a steep silicified rib cutting a fluvial conglomerate sequence.