Textbook - Geochemistry of Sedimentary Ore Deposits - 1983

Geochemistry & Hydrochemistry

J. Barry Maynard published the above text in 1983. It is now available on-line. Ore deposits come in a bewildering range of types, and their study involves almost all subdisciplines of geology. Accordingly, it has been difficult to cover the subject matter of economic geology satisfactorily in one book or in one course. In practice, some sort of restriction is made. For North American geologists, there has been a tendency, now fading, to regard economic geology as synonymous with the study of hydrothermal deposits. At one time this was carried to the extreme of insisting that almost all deposits were, in fact, hydrothermal.

More recently, the importance of sedimentary processes in ore genesis has begun to be appreciated, but the sedimentology necessary for the understanding of these processes is hard to integrate with the standard economic geology curriculum. It seems to me that a workable solution to this problem is to make divisions along the lines of the traditional areas of geology. Thus, one can approach volcanic ores from the viewpoint of a volcanologist, sedimentary ores from that of a sedimentologists. The ores are then treated within the context of the surrounding rocks, rather than as isolated entities. This book attempts to fill this purpose for sedimentary ores. 

[The text is only out of date in certain sections, which should be obvious when encountered.]