CLASSIFICATION OF MINERAL DEPOSITS AND RAW MATERIAL RESOURCES. Author of classification is Ph.D. Natalia Petrovskaya

1.1. These are the richest deposits.

This is an elite club. Extraneous are not allowed there.

Owners are State-owned companies or The Bloomberg Billionaires and The Forbes Billionaires. For example, Gina Rinehart,  Andrew Forrest  (Australia), Iris Fontbona (Chile), Rinat Akhmetov (Ukraine), Vladimir Kim (Kazakhstan), Viktor Rashnikov, Vladimir Lisin, Roman Abramovich, Oleg Deripaska, Vladimir Potanin, Alexei Mordashov, Dmitry Rybolovlev (Russia) and other.

2.1. - 2.n. Unprofitable mineral deposits. These are very poor deposits, or deposits for which cost-effective technology does not exist. The development of new technologies may take decades. This is the will of chance and good luck. But brokers and geologists do not want to wait long and sell under the guise of "deposits for underground leaching". 

Currently, I often meet many projects where they offer in situ leaching of ores (In situ leaching, In-situ leaching (ISL), in-situ recovery (ISR), solution  mining).
In situ leaching leaching (ISL) is a miracle or a new advertising move? 

Sometimes this is a way to sell you a poor deposit under the guise of a new trend!

3.1. - 3.n. Technogenic deposits (Anthropogenic deposits).

My personal opinion: Modern technogenic deposits are formed as a result of the use of bad technology.  

Recycling is the reprocessing of waste.
I have been engaged in recycling of mining and metallurgical wastes for more than 25 years, so I am very well versed in this field. Often recycling is of positive significance. I know such examples.
However, recently the concept of "recycling" has been used in questionable schemes.
The purpose of such schemes is to make you pay several times for the same product

You can read in more detail here Recycling of mining waste. Who will make a profit?

4.1. - 4.n. Secondary raw materials from which finished products are obtained.

For example,

• The medals for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics were made through the recycling of small electronic devices.

• Processing of non-ferrous scrap metal in giant shaft furnace.

5.1. Occurrences are not deposits, but brokers actively sell them.

For example, under the guise of REE deposits, they can sell an occurrence containing apatite, thorite, fluorite, brockite and many others. Such “deposits” are unpromising for the production of REE.

We can give a lot of such examples. We presented in the table only a few real examples

5.2.  Industrial waste. We know many examples where different tailing dumps, slurry waste, overburden rock (also called waste or spoil) are sold under the guise of mineral deposits.

A good mineral deposit is a rare find. Not every occurrence of minerals is a true mineral deposit.

Ph.D. Natalia Petrovskaya