Economic geology is concerned with earth materials that can be used for economic and/or industrial purposes. These materials include precious and base metals, nonmetallic minerals, construction-grade stone, petroleum minerals, coal, and water. The term commonly refers to metallic mineral deposits and mineral resources. The techniques employed by other earth science disciplines (such as geochemistry, mineralogy, geophysics, and structural geology) might all be used to understand, describe, and exploit an ore deposit.

Economic geology is studied and practiced by geologists; however it is of prime interest to investment bankers, stock analysts and other professions such as engineers, environmental scientists and conservationists because of the far-reaching impact which extractive industries have upon society, the economy and the environment.

Mineral resources

Mineral resources are concentrations of minerals which are of note for current and future societal needs. Ore is classified as mineralization economically and technically feasible for extraction. Not all mineralization meets these criteria for various reasons. The specific categories of mineralization in an economic sense are:

• mineral occurrences or prospects which are of geological interest but may not be economic interest
• mineral resources, include those which are potentially economically and technically feasible, and those which are not
• ore reserves, must be economically and technically feasible to extract