Porter GeoConsultancy (PGC) has developed, and continues to expand and update a database of the world's more important ore deposits - currently totalling 1775.   For a list of, and links to, the most recently added and updated records, go to What's New.

This database includes details of the regional and local geological setting, descriptions of the mineralisation and alteration styles and reserves for each deposit or group of deposits, and for major mineral provinces.   These descriptions vary from a paragraph to several thousand words, depending on available information encountered by PGC to date.

Each record indicates the date to which it is current, or the date of the most recent source consulted, at the end of the description. It also indicates the date of the most recent update (if updated after the initial entry).

Each record also has an attached list of the key references that describe the deposit/mineral province in question.

The database may be interrogated by one or more of:

	Deposit Name (or part thereof - see below for explanation),
	Region or Country   and
	Commodity

via the main Porter Geoconsultancy Database option.

These options allow you to view the geological descriptions, tonnage and grade data (for deposits) and the citations of relevant literature.

Papers relating to the ore deposits/provinces are also searchable by any combination of deposit name, commodities, deposit types, location or other keywords via the PGC Publishing Literature Collection option. This option will retrieve a list of papers that satisfy your search criteria, with a full citation and keywords that relate to the deposit that is the main subject of the paper.

Deposit Name Search - Note that the main database search option, which allows partial entry of names, differs from the exact word search formats in the Literature Collection search option.   When selecting by deposit name in the main Porter GeoConsultancy Database page you need only enter any part of the name.   You will then be given a list of deposits that include the character string you entered - eg. if you enter "brok" you will get "Broken Hill", Australia; "Aggeneys, Broken Hill", South Africa; "Kabwe, Broken Hill", Zambia; and "Stradbroke Island", Australia.   You may then click on the one you want and the appropriate data will be displayed.

In the Literature Collection search option, you must enter full word search terms, i.e., you must enter the full word "Kabwe", and the program will retrieve all records that include the exact word. If you enter "Kab" only, you will not get records for "Kabwe".

Tips

Spelling - The deposit descriptions follow standard spelling convention commonly used in Australia, including the following: sulphide, mineralisation, grey, greywacke, metre, centre, tonnes, colour, aluminium, Palaeozoic, Archaean, dyke, feldspar, Carboniferous, etc..

Web Search - Many of these database records are indexed on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing and can be searched from those sources.   Remember that the ore deposit descriptions are in free text and the content is variable.   Enter the minimum number of search terms, and if the result is too large, then refine your query and browse the result.   Enter 'Porter' among your search terms to get results from our database.

Do not be too specific with your search terms or deposit name.   It is always more reliable to retrieve a larger number of deposits which may be browsed or subsequently refined.