2012 Geochemistry of Mineral Deposits GRC

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Intellectual Merit. Mineral resources have always been an essential foundation of human civilization.Despite uncertain economic times for much of the world, prices for critical minerals continue toremain high as they are depleted by mining and as discovery of new resources becomesincreasingly difficult. Even with greater recycling and substitution, increasing demand requiresthat metals and other rare elements will continue to be mined from ore deposits. Such depositscan only be utilized in an environmentally responsible manner if the ore elements are highlyenriched by natural chemical and physical processes. These processes operate over a great rangeof spatial and temporal scales from the Earth?s interior to its surface, and from the earliestgeological records of the planet to the present day. The 2012 Gordon Research Conference(GRC) on the Geochemistry of Mineral Deposits presents a forum to present and discuss newdata and ideas on processes that control the formation and location of a wide range of mineraldeposits, including precious metals, base metals, and other critical elements. Sessions willinclude lithospheric controls on mineral deposits, magmatic and hydrothermal processes thatpartition metals among various mineral and fluid phases, active hydrothermal systems asanalogues to mineral deposits, and dynamic processes involved in ore genesis, includingvariations the fluxes and chemistry of magma and volatiles, tectonic triggers to regional oreformation, and the physical hydrogeology of hydrothermal systems. Evening sessions will focuson puzzling, controversial and commonly overlooked ore systems. These systems include theAfrican Copper Belt in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, iron oxide-copper-goldsystems, and systems that form rare earth elements, which have critical high-technology andenvironmental applications. Another evening session focuses on the distal expressions of largeore systems, which is of interest to private industry and government agencies involved inexploration and mineral assessments, which are important to land use decisions.Broader Impacts. GRCs provide a unique opportunity for scientists from government, academia andindustry from all over the world to meet in an informal setting. GRCs provide a level of intimacynot experienced in other conferences. Attendance is limited to 160 participants, emphasis is ondiscussion, and there are no concurrent sessions. Few conferences bring together such a widerange of scientists of both experience and focus, which ranges from pure, process-relatedresearch to applied research. Not all the participants specialize in ore deposits. Researchersfocused on igneous petrology, aqueous and isotope geochemistry, fluid flow, and activehydrothermal systems are speaking and leading sessions. With such an intimate setting, theparticipants have little choice but to interact with each other during the conference. Suchinteractions commonly lead to unforeseen collaborations. Funds will be provided to students,post-docs, and other young investigators to assist them in attending in the meeting, thus affordingthem the opportunity to network with recognized experts in both academia and industry and havea say in the future directions of mineral deposit research.