This book provides a comprehensive overview of mineral resource targeting and assessment based on the mineral systems approach. It presents prediction and evaluation methods for six major types of mineral systems—magmatic, magmatic hydrothermal, volcanic, strata-bound endogenic, sedimentary, and sedimentary metamorphic—each illustrated with case studies from China, offering practical guidance for researchers and practitioners in teaching, resource prediction, and assessment. The book opens with fundamental theories and methods for regional metallogenic analysis and quantitative mineral potential assessment, together with integrated information evaluation workflows. It then addresses critical technologies, including geological formation analysis, geophysical and geochemical data processing and interpretation, remote sensing applications, and quantitative prediction techniques. Dedicated chapters subsequently detail the classification, prediction models, and evaluation procedures for each of the six mineral system types, all supported by regional-scale application examples. A key feature is a database of 25 major mineral systems occurring in China, built upon multiple GIS layers comprising 1:200,000-scale geological, geochemical, and geophysical maps and remote sensing imagery. These data are the outcome of a nationwide survey conducted in China from 2006 to 2013, whose primary objective was to define criteria for country-scale assessment and targeting of mineral resources.
