deposits
Five words that are used interchangeably and mean five different things. Only the first two are geological, and the definition of the second contains the word "might".
About: Bingham Canyon
The USGS quotes the definition Lithoen uses: a mineral deposit is a mineral occurrence of sufficient size and grade that might, under the most favourable circumstances, be considered to have economic potential. Read the middle of that sentence slowly. Not that it is economic. Not that it is recoverable. Not that anybody has tried. "Might, under the most favourable circumstances" is a conditional about a hypothetical, and it is the entire content of the word deposit.[1]
An occurrence is documented mineralisation at a place, with no such judgement attached. Most known mineralisation on Earth is that and stays that. The step from occurrence to deposit is a judgement about size and grade made by a person reading evidence — and the two USGS databases Lithoen uses say outright that they made it, and that they excluded occurrences without economic potential from their compilations.[1]
A resource adds a formal estimate, made under a named public reporting framework, effective at a stated date, signed by a person with professional liability. A reserve adds the modifying factors — mining, processing, metallurgical, infrastructure, economic, legal, environmental, social, governmental. A mine adds capital, permits and a decision. And a mine is still not economic success.[1]
Lithoen implements none of those frameworks and asserts nothing in any of those categories. Where a source reports a figure inside one, the record must name the framework and the effective date, and a validator refuses it otherwise.[1]
A deposit is a body of rock. A mine is an industrial operation on part of one. A deposit may have several mines, may outlive all of them, may never have been mined, and extends wherever the mineralisation does rather than wherever a lease runs. Mine names change with operators; the rock does not.[1]
So Lithoen models no Mine entity at all, and no deposit record carries an operational status. Whether something is being mined today is time-sensitive information that belongs to a different layer with a different update cycle, and mixing it into a geological record would make the geology expire.[1]
Often said
“A mineral deposit is an economically viable body of ore.”
What the evidence supports
The definition Lithoen cites says a deposit is an occurrence that MIGHT, under the most favourable circumstances, be considered to have economic potential. The conditional is the definition.
Supporting records: deposit-definition
Often said
“A deposit with a published tonnage has that much of a resource.”
What the evidence supports
The tonnage in both USGS deposit databases is a compiler total: production plus reserves plus resources summed at the lowest possible cut-off so that deposits can be compared in a model. It is not a resource, and quoting it as one would be wrong in a way no amount of precision reveals.
Supporting records: porcu-tonnage-is-a-compiler-total
Bracketed references link to the structured entity records whose claims support each paragraph. Last updated 2026-09-07.