Fluid inclusion studies in mineral exploration - prospects for the future?

摘要

Recent studies predict that the world's population is likely to reach c. 10 billion by 2050. In order to sustain this growth it is also apparent that demand for minerals will increase. A continuous process of replenishment of economically-viable mineral deposits, as existing ones are worked out, is needed to meet this demand. Economic deposits are becoming increasingly difficult to find and new approaches to mineral exploration need to be developed into the 21st century. It is widely accepted that fluid inclusions have made a major contribution to our understanding of various ore genetic processes. Their value as tools in mineral exploration has also been recognised (Roedder, 1977; Wilkinson, 2001), but the manner and extent to which fluid inclusion studies may be developed in the future and directly applied in the search for undiscovered mineral deposits is less certain. This paper focuses on the potential value and limitations of fluid inclusions as tools in the regional and target appraisal stages of exploration for hydrothermal mineral deposits, drawing largely on published and unpublished case history examples from Sn-W-Cu-(U-Au)-mineralised and barren granitic rocks.