North American Resource Concentration Atlas

Abstract

North America contains some of Earth's most important mineral and hydrocarbon systems.

Gold, copper, silver, lithium, uranium, nickel, cobalt, platinum-group metals, diamonds, rare earth elements, oil, and gas occur across persistent geological frameworks shaped by cratons, basins, structural corridors, and inherited Earth-system architecture.

This paper evaluates North American resource concentration through survivorship, persistence, inheritance, and geological memory.

Scientific Context

Resource concentration is rarely random.

Many major discoveries occur where geological systems preserved favorable conditions across long intervals of time.

The Canadian Shield, Abitibi Greenstone Belt, Red Lake District, Hemlo Corridor, Sudbury Basin, Athabasca Basin, Permian Basin, Delaware Basin, Midland Basin, Eagle Ford, Bakken Formation, and DJ Basin provide high-value examples for evaluating resource concentration as a survivorship problem.

Resource Systems Included

• Gold exploration and gold deposits
• Copper exploration and porphyry copper systems
• Silver exploration and epithermal systems
• Lithium brines and lithium clay deposits
• Uranium exploration and unconformity uranium systems
• Nickel sulfides and cobalt deposits
• Platinum-group metals and layered intrusion systems
• Diamond exploration and kimberlite targeting
• Rare earth elements and critical minerals
• Oil exploration and gas exploration
• Source rock systems and reservoir characterization
• Geosteering, horizontal drilling, and unconventional reservoirs

Atlas Principle

Resource concentration may represent one of the most economically important expressions of geological survivorship.

Where structures persist, basins preserve, cratons stabilize, and inherited pathways remain active, discovery potential may increase.