World Mineral Deposits

Mineral deposits are natural accumulations of one or more useful minerals that may provide society with metallic or non-metallic raw materials. The Geological Survey of Canada has been compiling databases for major metallic mineral deposits on Canada-wide and world-wide scale over a three decade period. The most recent compilation was enabled by industry-sponsored World Map and World Minerals Geoscience Database Projects. Global databases for seven important metallic deposit types: lode gold, porphyry-related, nickel-platinum group-chromite, sedimentary exhalative lead-zinc, Mississippi Valley-type zinc-lead, iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG), and sediment-hosted copper deposits are now available On-Line. Five easy-to-use thematic world geology datasets provide generalized geological context for the global databases.