نیم قرن کشف مواد معدنی در جهان و ایران رویکردها، روندها و آموخته‌ها

Number and type of mineral explorations and discoveries have changed globally and domestically with respect to trends and conditions and surrounding limitations. Several factors are involved in the changing trends which include mineral being explored, time of discovery, discovery technique, geological age of host rock, discovery stage, price index fluctuations, financial backup of the projects, quantity and hidden value of important discoveries. In this research by keeping in mind the above mentioned variables the overall trend of mineral discovery at global and national levels has been evaluated. New free trade conditions had an important impact on discovery industry particularly in the infrastructure of discovery rights, study area selection, discovery project financial backup, foreign investment, and acquiring the deposit instead of prospecting  for it. Number of important discoveries had a rising trend in ۵۰'s and ۶۰'s and reached its climax in the ۸۰'s and fell during ۸۰'s and ۹۰'s. Porphyry copper containing gold and molybdenum has the highest in-ground value. Mesozoic has the highest in-ground value and the value decreases with the increasing geological age.Most of the giant metal deposits of Iran have ancient mining record and rediscovering them was by prospecting those records. Number of giant metal deposits which were discovered first time in the past ۵۰ years are very few like Venarch manganese and Doona lead and zinc. Number of discovered non-metal deposits are more abundant like Esfordi phosphate and Dopolan bauxite. From ۱۹۷۱ to ۱۹۹۶ no giant deposit has been discovered for first time. In recent years specially from ۱۹۹۶-۲۰۰۲ by increase in the production of basic information, systematic prospecting, and foreign investment big gold deposit of Dashkasan and numerous metal indices (over ۶۰۰ ) have been discovered. The outcome of this research could provide a better platform for understanding  the technical and economical trends of nation’s discovery industry and developing and  upgrading its  strategy.