Contemporary theories on the origin and distribution of mineral deposits, including oil and gas accumulations, are anything but quantitative and frequently not highly productive when directly applied to exploration. Our predictive skills have been severely limited by our inability to characterize some of the most fundamental aspects of the formation of these deposits: How did they form, from where did the source material originate, and what are the fundamental parameters of importance? Is there some very basic factor that has been overlooked? Using sophisticated analytical techniques and endlessly improved support equipment, a large data base of mineralogical and geochemical data is continually being enlarged. From this and other information, conclusions are drawn and hypotheses developed. This approach to quantification is generally taken for granted. However, with all of this available information, the exploration for mineral deposits still remains an inexact experience. Something very basic and very fundamental appears to be missing! During the past twenty five years there has been an increasing research interest by the scientific community in nanosized atomic particles that are less than bulk metal size and consequently do not portray the same physical and chemical properties as their bulk metal counterparts. This rapidly progressing area of research has blossomed into what is considered as a new extension of chemistry and physics; full of new ideas, discoveries, and useful applications! Diverse and unusual chemical and physical properties are being discovered for various non-bulk metal particles. The application of this knowledge has proven to be of great benefit in such areas as materials science, catalysis, metallurgy, and biology. Similar applications to the earth sciences, however, have been generally lacking. Investigations by mineral explorationists into the material realm of minerals and organic compounds, with few exceptions, deal with bulk metal size material with an apparent presumption that their naturally-formed nanosized counterparts are either not present or of little or no consequence. Perhaps we should make the effort to look!
A.C.J.
“Instead it was discovered that things on a small scale behave nothing like things on a large scale. That is what makes physics difficult – and very interesting. It is hard because the way things behave on a small scale is so “unnatural”; we have no direct experience with it. Here things behave like nothing we know of, so that it is impossible to describe this behavior in any other than analytic ways. It is difficult and it takes a lot of imagination.” Feynman, Richard P., 1995, Six easy pieces: essentials of physics explained by its most brilliant teacher/ Richard P. Feynman; originally prepared for publication by Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 146 p.