| Abstract: | Over the past three decades U.S.scientists have developed a propensity to thinkof ore deposits as products of large-scale processes,such as plate tectonics and regional mi-gration of basinal brines. During the same time interval,mining companies and scientific in-vestigators have concentrated on gold ores to an unprecedented degree and,with the no-table exception of domestic Au ores,have begun to focus their efforts on deposits locatedoutside the country.Fluid inclusion research,absolute dating,stable isotopic studies,computer modelling,remote sensing,and geophysical methods have all become widelyused techniques.Currently popular research topics comprise a broad range of deposits in-cluding porphyry ores, Mississippi Valley-type ores,diamond pipes,deep-ocean massivesulfide deposits,precious metalbearing coals,shale-hosted mineralization,and severalnew deposit types such as Olympic Dam-type ores,Carlin-type deposits,and Ni-Mo-PGE-Au sulfide beds,During the next decade,there is likely to be a continued preoccupationwith non-domestic deposits and gold.Discoveries of important new mineral deposits,espe-cially in the basement terrane,beneath the oceans,and overseas remain likely for the fore-seeable future. Expanded efforts on environmental studies,comparable to recent studies offluids in sedimentary basins can also be expected.At the same time,innovative studies ofthe earth’s interior may lead to conceptual breakthroughs about ore genesis analogous tothat resulting from the acceptance of plate tectonics. |
