page_title: Hydrothermal mineral deposit
section_title: Porphyry Ore Deposits
hierarchical_section_title: Hydrothermal mineral deposit / Porphyry Ore Deposits
caption_attribution_description: English: Hypothetical cross-section of an island arc volcano showing intrusions emplaced into the core of the volcano
context_page_description: Hydrothermal mineral deposits are accumulations of valuable minerals which formed from hot waters circulating in Earth's crust through fractures. They eventually create rich-metallic fluids concentrated in a selected volume of rock, which become supersaturated and then precipitate ore minerals. In some occurrences, minerals can be extracted at a profit by mining. Discovery of mineral deposits consumes considerable time and resources and only about one in every one thousand prospects explored by companies are eventually developed into a mine. A mineral deposit is any geologically significant concentration of an economically useful rock or mineral present in a specified area. The presence of a known but unexploited mineral deposit implies a lack of evidence for profitable extraction.
  Hydrothermal mineral deposits are divided into six main subcategories: porphyry, skarn, volcanogenic massive sulfide, sedimentary exhalative, and epithermal and Mississippi Valley-type deposits. Each hydrothermal mineral deposit has different distinct structures, ages, sizes, grades, geological formation, characteristics and, most importantly, value.
context_section_description: Porphyry deposits account for most of the copper and molybdenum world production, 60 and 95 percent of its supply respectively.
  Porphyry-type ore deposits form in hydrothermal fluid circulation systems developed above and around high-level, subvolcanic felsic to intermediate magma chambers and/or cooling plutons. The ore is temporally and genetically related to the intrusions, but did not precipitate directly from the magma.
caption: Hypothetical cross-section of an island arc volcano showing intrusions emplaced into the core of the volcano. During the development of porphyry-type ore, one or more intrusions would have generated a separate hydrothermal fluid phase and/or acted as a heat source to drive convection of meteoric waters (see red arrows).
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