Forty-four commodities, validated across three countries.

Gold is the archetypal exploration target — high value, globally liquid, and hosted across a wide range of geological settings. MineDSS focuses on the two systems that hold most of the world's hard-rock gold: orogenic (mesothermal) lode gold, deposited where mineralising fluids move along major crustal faults during mountain-building, and intrusion-related gold, sourced from cooling granitic bodies at depth. Both leave a chemical and geophysical footprint far larger than the ore itself — and that footprint is what a prospectivity model learns to read.

Copper is the backbone metal of electrification — an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, ductile, corrosion-resistant and endlessly recyclable. MineDSS focuses on the two systems that supply most of the world's mined copper: porphyry copper deposits, large, relatively low-grade bodies formed above cooling calc-alkaline intrusions where magmatic fluids disperse copper and molybdenum through fractured rock; and iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) systems, iron-oxide-rich bodies carrying copper and gold, often at the margins of large igneous provinces and deep crustal breaks. Both build alteration and geochemical footprints far larger than the ore itself — and that footprint is what a prospectivity model learns to read.

Silver is a precious metal that is also a genuine industrial workhorse, and the two roles keep demand for it broad and persistent. MineDSS focuses on the epithermal and vein systems that host much of the world's primary silver — mineralisation deposited in the shallow crust from hot, circulating fluids, typically in and above volcanic arcs. These are the classic bonanza vein and disseminated deposits, where silver occurs as native metal, argentite and sulphosalts alongside gold and base-metal sulphides. This page covers that epithermal route specifically; the base-metal silver that travels with lead and zinc in SEDEX and VMS settings is a distinct system modelled separately.

Lead, zinc and silver are the classic base-metal trio, most often mined together from the same sulphide bodies. MineDSS focuses on the two systems that supply the bulk of the world's zinc and a major share of its lead and silver: sediment-hosted (SEDEX) deposits, formed where metal-bearing brines vent into a sedimentary basin and precipitate stratabound lead-zinc-silver sulphides, and volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) systems, deposited on and beneath the seafloor from hydrothermal fluids circulating through submarine volcanic piles. Both are large, chemically distinctive sulphide accumulations, and the silver they carry is by-product silver bound in that base-metal ore — distinct from the epithermal silver MineDSS models separately.

Nickel and cobalt are the workhorse metals of the energy transition, and they occur together in two very different geological settings that MineDSS models side by side. Magmatic sulphide systems form where mantle-derived mafic and ultramafic magmas become saturated in sulphur and drop dense immiscible sulphide liquid that concentrates nickel, cobalt and copper — the classic style at intrusive and komatiitic centres. Lateritic systems form at the surface, where deep tropical weathering of ultramafic bedrock leaches and re-concentrates nickel and cobalt into thick, layered regolith profiles. The two systems share a source-rock chemistry but leave entirely different footprints, and a prospectivity model has to read both.

Tin and tungsten are the classic hard-metal pair of the felsic-intrusion world, so closely linked geologically that explorers routinely hunt them together. MineDSS focuses on granite-related tin and tungsten systems — mineralisation sourced from highly evolved, volatile-rich granitic melts. As these fractionated granites cool, tin (in cassiterite) and tungsten (in wolframite and scheelite) concentrate in the residual fluids and are deposited in and around the pluton: in greisenised cupolas, sheeted vein and stockwork arrays, quartz-wolframite veins, and reactive skarns where fluids meet carbonate wall rock. These systems carry a distinctive, chemically evolved footprint far larger than the ore itself — and that footprint is what a prospectivity model learns to read.

Uranium is a heavy, naturally radioactive metal whose economic concentrations form where uranium, highly soluble in oxidised groundwater, is stripped from solution at a redox front and fixed as reduced minerals such as uraninite and coffinite. MineDSS models two of the most productive families. Sandstone-hosted (roll-front) systems form in permeable, reduced sedimentary basins where oxidising, uranium-bearing groundwater migrates until it meets organic matter, sulphides or hydrocarbons and precipitates along a crescent-shaped front. Unconformity-related systems form at the contact between deformed basement and an overlying sedimentary basin, along reactivated faults. The mappable footprint a prospectivity model reads is a redox interface: the geochemical, structural and alteration signature of oxidising fluid meeting a reductant.

Molybdenum is a refractory transition metal valued for the strength, hardness and heat resistance it confers on steel and specialty alloys. In nature it occurs chiefly as molybdenite, a molybdenum sulphide, and it is recovered both as the primary product of Climax-type porphyry molybdenum systems and as a by-product of porphyry copper mining. MineDSS models molybdenum through two seeded deposit systems: porphyry and vein molybdenum systems. Each is associated with felsic intrusions, hydrothermal alteration and structurally focused sulphide mineralisation. These processes leave a mappable footprint — altered and veined intrusive rocks, characteristic geophysical responses and a distinctive multi-element geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Antimony is a designated critical mineral, valued for the flame retardants, hardening alloys and emerging liquid-metal energy-storage chemistries that depend on it. It is won almost entirely as stibnite (antimony sulphide), and MineDSS models the two settings that host most of the world's primary supply: orogenic and epithermal antimony systems. In orogenic systems, antimony is concentrated by metamorphic fluids in deformed terranes and is closely bound up with gold; in epithermal systems it is deposited from shallow hydrothermal fluids in volcanic settings. Both leave a distinctive geochemical footprint — an arsenic-gold-mercury signature far wider than the ore itself — and that footprint is what a prospectivity model learns to read.

Lithium is the lightest metal, valued for its exceptional electrochemical potential and low density, and now central to energy storage. MineDSS models hard-rock lithium hosted in lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite systems — the highly fractionated granitic pegmatites that carry spodumene and petalite as the principal ore minerals. These are the most evolved products of granite crystallisation, enriched in incompatible elements and volatiles. The platform does not model lithium brines from salars or sedimentary-clay lithium; its focus is the crystalline hard-rock resource. What a prospectivity model reads is the geochemical and geological fingerprint of extreme magmatic fractionation — a rare-element pegmatite signature imprinted on host rocks and their weathering products, distinct from ordinary granitic terrain.

Rare-earth elements (REE) are a group of seventeen metals — the lanthanides together with scandium and yttrium — prized for the magnetic, optical and catalytic properties that make them difficult to substitute. MineDSS models primary rare earths hosted in carbonatite and alkaline-igneous systems, the source of most of the world's mined REE supply. In these settings the rare earths are concentrated by mantle-derived, carbonate- and alkali-rich magmatism rather than by surface weathering. The result is a distinctive high-field-strength-element footprint — enrichment in thorium, niobium and zirconium alongside barium and strontium — expressed in mapped intrusive geology, radiometric and magnetic response, and residual soil and stream geochemistry. That composite signature is what a prospectivity model reads.

Barium is a soft, silvery alkaline-earth metal too reactive to occur natively; in economic concentration it is won almost entirely as barite, its dense barium sulphate ore, with witherite, a barium carbonate, a lesser source. Barite is the heaviest common non-metallic mineral, and that exceptional specific gravity underlies most of its value. MineDSS models barium through two seeded deposit families: sediment-hosted (bedded) and vein barite systems. Each concentrates barite where barium-bearing fluids meet sulphate, whether in marine basinal muds or along faults and fractures, leaving a mappable footprint of altered and mineralised host rock, characteristic geophysical contrast and a distinctive multi-element geochemical halo, exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Beryllium is a light, exceptionally stiff, steel-grey metal, prized because it combines very low density and atomic mass with high rigidity, dimensional stability and near-transparency to X-rays. It is strongly lithophile and does not form its own sulphides; in nature it is carried by silicate minerals, chiefly beryl, a beryllium aluminium silicate, together with bertrandite, phenakite and chrysoberyl. MineDSS models beryllium through three seeded deposit systems: rare-element granitic pegmatites, greisen zones on granite margins, and volcanic-hosted bertrandite deposits in fluorine-rich rhyolite. Each is tied to highly evolved, volatile-rich felsic magmatism, and each leaves a mappable footprint — altered and veined intrusive or volcanic rocks, characteristic geophysical responses and a distinctive lithophile geochemical halo — exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Bismuth is a brittle, silvery-white heavy metal prized for its very low melting point, its low toxicity and its unusual habit of expanding as it solidifies. In nature it occurs chiefly as native bismuth and as bismuthinite, a bismuth sulphide, and it is commonly carried in bismuth tellurides of the tetradymite group and in bismuth sulphosalts. It is won almost entirely as a by-product of smelting lead, tungsten, tin and copper ores rather than from bismuth-only mines. MineDSS models bismuth through two seeded deposit systems: granite-related and polymetallic. Both are tied to felsic intrusions, hydrothermal alteration and structurally focused sulphide mineralisation, and both leave a mappable footprint — greisenised and veined intrusive rocks, characteristic geophysical responses and a distinctive multi-element geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Boron is a light metalloid that almost never occurs as the free element; in nature it is locked into borate minerals, chiefly the sodium borates borax and kernite and the calcium and sodium-calcium borates colemanite and ulexite. Because borates are highly soluble, economic concentrations form only in arid settings. MineDSS models boron through two seeded families: evaporitic borate systems, deposited in closed desert basins, and pegmatitic systems, where boron is carried in tourmaline within highly evolved granitic bodies. Each leaves a mappable footprint — evaporite-bearing lacustrine sequences or altered, veined pegmatite margins, distinctive geophysical responses and a co-located multi-element geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Caesium is a soft, silvery-gold alkali metal — the most electropositive of the stable elements and one of the few metals that is liquid near room temperature, melting at about 28.5°C. It has effectively a single economic ore, pollucite, a caesium-rich zeolite-group aluminosilicate that crystallises only in the most chemically evolved pegmatites. MineDSS models the setting that hosts it: highly evolved rare-metal, or lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT), pegmatites — the residue of extreme granitic fractionation. These bodies leave a mappable footprint of zoned, coarse-grained intrusive rock, a distinctive rare-element geochemical halo and a characteristic structural and lithological association, which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Chromium is a hard, silvery, corrosion-resistant transition metal, and in nature it is won almost entirely from a single ore mineral, chromite — an iron-chromium oxide of the spinel group. Chromite crystallises early from mantle-derived magmas, so its economic concentrations are confined to mafic and ultramafic rocks. MineDSS models chromium through two seeded deposit systems: stratiform chromite in layered mafic–ultramafic intrusions and podiform chromite in ophiolite complexes. Both are magmatic accumulations of chromite grains, and both leave a mappable footprint — distinctive ultramafic host lithologies, characteristic magnetic and gravity responses, and a co-located suite of nickel-, cobalt- and platinum-group geochemistry — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Cobalt is a lustrous, ferromagnetic transition metal prized for the strength, heat resistance and magnetic performance it confers on alloys, and for its role in rechargeable-battery chemistry. It is rarely found as a native metal and is won almost entirely as a by-product of copper and nickel mining. Its ore minerals span sulphides and sulpharsenides such as cobaltite, linnaeite and carrollite, the arsenide skutterudite, cobalt-bearing pentlandite in magmatic ores, and secondary oxides such as heterogenite in weathered ground. MineDSS models cobalt through three seeded deposit systems: magmatic sulphide, sediment-hosted and lateritic. Each leaves a mappable footprint — distinctive host lithologies, alteration or weathering, geophysical responses and a co-located multi-element geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Dysprosium is a heavy rare-earth element, a soft, silvery lanthanide prized less for the metal itself than for the properties it lends to permanent magnets. It rarely forms minerals of its own; instead it substitutes into rare-earth and yttrium phases such as xenotime, zircon, fergusonite and eudialyte, and in deeply weathered terrains it is held as loosely bound ions on clay surfaces. MineDSS models dysprosium through two seeded systems: alkaline igneous and ion-adsorption. Both concentrate the heavy rare earths from the same starting ingredient — a magma unusually rich in incompatible elements — and both leave a mappable footprint of distinctive geology, radiometric response and multi-element geochemistry that a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Fluorine is the lightest and most reactive of the halogens, and in nature it is won almost entirely from a single ore mineral: fluorite, or fluorspar, a calcium fluoride that is the primary industrial source of fluorine chemistry. Smaller amounts are carried in fluorapatite and topaz. MineDSS models fluorine through three seeded deposit systems: vein, carbonatite and granite-related fluorite. Each is the product of fluorine-rich hydrothermal or magmatic fluids that concentrate fluorite in fractures, alkaline intrusions or the roofs of evolved granites. These processes leave a mappable footprint — veined and altered host rocks, characteristic geophysical responses and a distinctive multi-element geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Gallium is a soft, silvery post-transition metal so low-melting that it turns to liquid just above room temperature, yet it is prized for the compound semiconductors it forms rather than for the metal itself. It builds no ore of its own: at around seventeen parts per million in the crust it never concentrates into a standalone deposit. Instead it behaves as a geochemical hitch-hiker, substituting for aluminium and zinc, whose ions sit close to gallium in size and charge. MineDSS models gallium through the two host families that carry it. Aluminous host systems — bauxite and highly-evolved, aluminium-rich granitic and pegmatitic rocks — concentrate gallium alongside aluminium, while zinc-sulphide host systems fix it inside sphalerite. Each leaves a mappable geological, geophysical and geochemical footprint that a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Germanium is a lustrous, brittle metalloid valued as a semiconductor and for its near-total transparency to infrared light. It is rarely mined in its own right; economic germanium is won as a companion element, hosted principally in zinc-sulphide ores and in low-rank coal. In sulphide systems it substitutes into the sphalerite lattice, and less commonly forms rare copper-germanium minerals such as germanite and renierite; in coal and lignite it is bound to organic matter and concentrated in the resulting ash. MineDSS models germanium through the two host families that actually carry it: zinc-sulphide-hosted and coal-related systems. Each leaves a mappable footprint — sphalerite-bearing sulphide bodies or germanium-enriched coal measures with a distinctive multi-element geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Hafnium is a lustrous, corrosion-resistant refractory metal and the near-chemical twin of zirconium: the two share almost identical ionic radii, so hafnium substitutes for zirconium in the same minerals and is stubbornly difficult to separate from it. It forms no ore mineral of its own. Instead it is carried in zircon, a zirconium silicate, and, less commonly, in baddeleyite, a zirconium oxide, and it is recovered as a by-product of zirconium refining. MineDSS models the settings whose zircon and baddeleyite carry the richest hafnium: evolved felsic, peralkaline and alkaline-complex igneous systems. As granitic magma differentiates, hafnium concentrates in late-crystallising zircon, so the most fractionated and alkali-enriched intrusions leave the strongest signal — altered, high-field-strength-enriched rocks with a distinctive radiometric and multi-element geochemical footprint that a prospectivity model is built to read.

Indium is a soft, silvery post-transition metal so scarce and finely dispersed that it forms no ore of its own. It is won almost entirely as a by-product, recovered from the zinc-sulphide mineral sphalerite during zinc smelting, where indium substitutes into the crystal lattice at concentrations ranging from a fraction of a part per million to around a hundred. Its best-known discrete mineral, roquesite, a copper-indium sulphide, occurs only in trace amounts and is never economic on its own. MineDSS models indium through the two host families that carry most of the world's resources: zinc-sulphide systems and tin-polymetallic systems. Both leave a mappable footprint of sulphide mineralisation, hydrothermal alteration and a distinctive multi-element geochemical halo, which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Lanthanum is a soft, silvery light rare-earth element, the first of the lanthanide series and one of the more abundant rare earths in the crust. It is seldom concentrated on its own; instead it is won from the light-rare-earth suite alongside cerium, praseodymium and neodymium. Its principal ore minerals are the fluorocarbonate bastnäsite and the phosphate monazite, with parisite, synchysite, ancylite and allanite as further hosts. Economic concentrations form in carbonatite and alkaline igneous systems, where mantle-derived, carbonate- and alkali-rich magmas concentrate the rare earths and where later weathering can upgrade them further. These systems leave a mappable footprint — distinctive intrusive and metasomatic rocks, a radiometric signature and a characteristic incompatible-element geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Manganese is a hard, brittle transition metal that never occurs in native form; it is won instead from a family of oxide, carbonate and silicate minerals, chief among them pyrolusite, a manganese dioxide, alongside cryptomelane, romanechite, manganite, braunite and the carbonate rhodochrosite. Its geology is governed by redox: dissolved manganese is mobile in reduced, oxygen-poor water and precipitates as insoluble oxides once it reaches an oxygenated setting. MineDSS models two of the most productive families through its seeded systems, sedimentary and supergene. Each leaves a mappable footprint of manganese-oxide beds, weathering profiles, characteristic geophysical responses and a co-located multi-element geochemical halo, which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Neodymium is a light rare-earth element and one of the lanthanide metals, a soft, silvery metal reactive enough to tarnish in air. It rarely forms minerals of its own, instead substituting into light-rare-earth carriers: the fluorocarbonate bastnäsite, the phosphate monazite, and related species such as parisite, synchysite and, in alkaline rocks, eudialyte and allanite. Economic concentrations are won from two intrusive families, and MineDSS models both. Carbonatite and alkaline igneous systems each leave a mappable footprint — altered and veined carbonate and felsic-alkaline rocks, distinctive radiometric and potential-field responses, and a multi-element geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Niobium (Nb) is a soft, grey, highly refractory transition metal prized for the strength it imparts in tiny quantities. Its dominant use is as ferroniobium, an iron-niobium alloy added at fractions of a per cent to high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steel, where niobium carbide and nitride precipitates sharply raise strength and toughness in pipelines, vehicles and structural sections. Niobium also stiffens the nickel-based superalloys that line jet engines and gas turbines, and its alloys with titanium and tin are the workhorse superconductors of medical imaging magnets and particle accelerators. Almost all mined niobium comes from a single ore mineral, pyrochlore, hosted in carbonatite intrusions. Classed as a critical mineral by both the United States and Canada, its supply is unusually concentrated, which places a premium on new and secure sources.

Palladium is a rare, silvery-white platinum-group metal prized for its catalytic activity and its unusual capacity to absorb hydrogen. In nature it is overwhelmingly a product of mafic and ultramafic magmatism, occurring as palladium-bearing alloys, as sulphides such as braggite and vysotskite, and as bismuth-tellurides like merenskyite and kotulskite, commonly locked within base-metal sulphides including pentlandite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite. MineDSS models palladium and the wider platinum-group elements through the magmatic systems that concentrate them: reef-type horizons and magmatic sulphide accumulations in layered mafic–ultramafic intrusions. These processes leave a mappable footprint — differentiated intrusive rocks, sulphide-bearing zones, characteristic geophysical responses and a chalcophile geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Platinum is a dense, chemically inert precious metal, the best known of the six platinum-group elements. In nature it occurs as native platinum and platinum-iron alloys, and in platinum-group minerals such as sperrylite, a platinum arsenide, and cooperite, a platinum sulphide. Economic concentrations form almost entirely by magmatic processes: platinum is scavenged from large volumes of cooling mafic magma into immiscible sulphide droplets and chromite, then concentrated within layered mafic–ultramafic intrusions. MineDSS models platinum through two seeded families in these intrusions — reef-type and contact-type systems. Each leaves a mappable footprint of layered mafic and ultramafic rocks, chromitite and sulphide horizons, characteristic gravity and magnetic responses, and a co-located multi-element geochemical signature, which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Rhenium is one of the rarest elements in the Earth's continental crust, present at only about one part per billion — a dense, silvery, refractory metal with the third-highest melting point of any element, after carbon and tungsten, and exceptional strength at extreme temperature. It almost never forms a mineral of its own; the rhenium sulphide rheniite is a mineralogical curiosity confined to a handful of volcanic fumaroles. Instead, rhenium hides inside molybdenite, the molybdenum sulphide of porphyry systems, substituting for molybdenum in its lattice because the two elements share such similar chemistry. MineDSS therefore models rhenium where it actually concentrates: within porphyry copper–molybdenum systems, whose altered and veined intrusions, distinctive geophysical response and multi-element geochemical halo leave a mappable footprint a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Rubidium is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal, closely related to potassium and among the most reactive of all elements. It forms no ore mineral of its own; instead it substitutes for potassium in the lattice of potassium-bearing micas and alkali feldspars, so economic concentrations arise only where those host minerals themselves become rubidium-rich. That happens in the most highly-evolved products of granitic magmatism. MineDSS ranks ground for rubidium enrichment in two such settings: rare-metal pegmatites of the lithium-caesium-tantalum family and highly-fractionated rare-metal granites. In both, extreme magmatic fractionation drives rubidium into lepidolite, zinnwaldite, muscovite and potassium feldspar alongside a distinctive suite of other rare metals. That evolved granite-pegmatite footprint — mapped geology, greisen alteration and a multi-element geochemical halo — is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Scandium is a light transition metal, chemically allied to the rare earths, prized for the outsized strengthening effect it has on aluminium. It rarely forms minerals of its own — the scandium silicate thortveitite is the only notable ore mineral — and is instead dispersed at trace levels, substituting for iron and magnesium in ferromagnesian minerals and iron oxides. MineDSS models scandium through two seeded families: magmatic mafic-ultramafic systems and lateritic systems. In the first, scandium concentrates in clinopyroxene and amphibole within mafic to ultramafic intrusions; in the second, deep tropical weathering of those same rocks upgrades scandium in the iron-oxide-rich limonite zone. Both leave a mappable footprint — distinctive host lithologies, geophysical responses and a co-located multi-element geochemical signature — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Selenium is a chalcophile metalloid, chemically similar to sulphur, and it very rarely forms minerals of its own. Instead it substitutes for sulphur within the lattice of common sulphide minerals, and where it does crystallise as discrete selenides these are species such as clausthalite, naumannite and tiemannite. Almost all commercial selenium is recovered indirectly, as a by-product of the electrolytic refining of copper, where it accumulates in anode slimes. MineDSS models selenium through two seeded host families: sulphide and sediment-hosted systems. Each concentrates selenium by a distinct mechanism — one by chemical substitution in metal sulphides, the other by redox precipitation in reduced sediments — and each leaves a mappable geochemical and geological footprint that a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Strontium is a soft, highly reactive alkaline-earth metal that never occurs free in nature. Its economic concentrations are carried almost entirely by two minerals: celestine, a strontium sulphate, and strontianite, a strontium carbonate. MineDSS models strontium through two seeded families. Sedimentary systems host celestine in carbonate-evaporite sequences, where strontium expelled from limestone and dolomite during burial meets sulphate-rich brines and precipitates in restricted, evaporitic basins. Carbonatite-related systems concentrate strontium in mantle-derived carbonate intrusions and their alkaline aureoles, alongside the rare earths, niobium and barium that share its geochemistry. Both leave a mappable footprint — distinctive host lithologies, characteristic geophysical responses and a co-located multi-element geochemical halo — which is precisely the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Tantalum is a dense, refractory transition metal and a high-field-strength element prized for its exceptional corrosion resistance and its ability to hold charge in a stable oxide film. In nature it occurs almost entirely in oxide minerals, chiefly the columbite-tantalite series known as coltan, with tantalite the tantalum-rich end member, alongside microlite, wodginite and tapiolite. It is won from the most highly evolved granitic melts on Earth. MineDSS models tantalum through two seeded systems: rare-metal pegmatites of the lithium-caesium-tantalum family, and rare-metal granites. Both are the residue of extreme magmatic fractionation, enriched in incompatible elements and marked by albitisation, greisen and a distinctive alkali-metal and tin geochemical halo — a mappable footprint a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Tellurium is a rare, brittle, silver-white metalloid with a strong geochemical affinity for gold. It seldom forms minerals of its own in bulk; instead it occurs as gold, silver, lead and mercury tellurides — calaverite, sylvanite, petzite, hessite, coloradoite and altaite — and as native tellurium, typically hosted within precious-metal veins. Because economic concentrations are scarce, most of the world's supply is recovered as a by-product of copper electrolytic refining rather than mined directly. MineDSS models tellurium through two seeded families: epithermal gold–silver and polymetallic systems. Each is marked by hydrothermal alteration, structurally focused veining and a distinctive multi-element geochemical halo — the mappable footprint a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Terbium is a heavy rare-earth element, a soft, silvery lanthanide that rarely forms an ore mineral of its own and is instead won from rare-earth-bearing hosts such as xenotime, monazite and euxenite, and from rare-earth-rich weathering clays. Because it sits at the heavy end of the lanthanide series, terbium concentrates in a narrower set of geological settings than the light rare earths. MineDSS models terbium and heavy-rare-earth enrichment through two seeded systems: alkaline igneous complexes and ion-adsorption (regolith-hosted) deposits. Each leaves a mappable footprint — evolved, incompatible-element-rich intrusions or deeply weathered fertile granites, distinctive geophysical responses and a characteristic multi-element geochemical signature — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Thorium is a naturally radioactive actinide metal, several times more abundant in the Earth's crust than uranium, that concentrates alongside the rare-earth and high-field-strength elements rather than forming ores of its own. Its principal carriers are monazite, a rare-earth thorium phosphate that is the main commercial source, together with thorite and thorianite. MineDSS models thorium through three seeded deposit systems: alkaline igneous, carbonatite and placer settings. Each concentrates thorium by a different mechanism, but all leave a mappable footprint — a distinctive radiometric response, a multi-element geochemical halo of incompatible elements, and characteristic host lithologies — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Tin is a soft, corrosion-resistant metal whose economic concentrations are won almost entirely from a single ore mineral, cassiterite, a dense and durable tin oxide, with minor contributions from the sulphide stannite. It is recovered both from hard-rock lodes and from the placer deposits those lodes shed. MineDSS models tin through three seeded systems tied to evolved granites: greisen, vein and placer. Each traces back to a highly fractionated granite that concentrated tin in its uppermost cupola, then vented tin-bearing fluids into surrounding fractures and alteration zones. The mappable footprint a prospectivity model reads is that fertile granite architecture and its aureole — greisenised and veined intrusive rock, a distinctive incompatible-element geochemical halo, and downstream concentrations of resistant cassiterite — which is exactly the pattern a model is built to detect across large, partly covered terrains.

Tungsten is a refractory transition metal, chemical symbol W after its historic name wolfram, prized for the highest melting point of any metal together with exceptional density, hardness and heat resistance. In nature it is won almost entirely from two ore minerals: scheelite, a calcium tungstate, and the wolframite series of iron-manganese tungstates. Both crystallise from volatile-rich fluids expelled by cooling granitic intrusions, and MineDSS models tungsten through three seeded deposit systems: skarn, vein and greisen. Each is tied to felsic intrusions, hydrothermal alteration and structurally focused mineralisation, and each leaves a mappable footprint — altered and veined intrusive and carbonate rocks, characteristic geophysical responses over concealed granites, and a distinctive granophile multi-element geochemical halo that a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Vanadium is a hard, silvery-grey transition metal prized for the strength, toughness and heat resistance it lends to steel and speciality alloys. It seldom forms minerals of its own; instead it substitutes into iron- and titanium-bearing phases, and its principal ore is vanadiferous titanomagnetite — magnetite in which vanadium replaces iron. Secondary vanadate minerals such as vanadinite, descloizite and the uranium-bearing carnotite form in oxidised and sediment-hosted settings. MineDSS models vanadium through two seeded deposit families: mafic-intrusion titanomagnetite systems and sediment-hosted systems. Each leaves a mappable footprint — layered mafic rocks or reduced, metal-rich sediments, characteristic geophysical responses and a distinctive multi-element geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Yttrium is a silvery rare-earth metal that, although lighter than the lanthanides, carries the ionic radius and chemistry of the heavy rare earths and travels with them through geological processes. Its principal ore mineral is xenotime, an yttrium phosphate that preferentially takes up the heavy rare earths, with further yttrium hosted in monazite and in the complex silicates and oxides of alkaline rocks such as eudialyte, gadolinite and fergusonite. MineDSS ranks ground for yttrium and heavy-rare-earth enrichment in alkaline igneous and related peralkaline systems: highly evolved intrusions and their hydrothermal overprints, where incompatible elements concentrate. These settings leave a mappable footprint — evolved intrusive geology, radiometric and magnetic responses, altered ground and a distinctive high-field-strength geochemical halo — which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.

Zirconium is a strong, corrosion- and heat-resistant transition metal whose economic concentrations are carried almost entirely by zircon, a dense zirconium silicate so chemically durable that it both crystallises in igneous rocks and survives weathering to accumulate in sedimentary sands; zircon is also the world's sole commercial source of hafnium. Lesser hosts include baddeleyite, a zirconium oxide, and the sodium-zirconium silicate eudialyte found in alkaline rocks. MineDSS models zirconium through two seeded deposit systems: alkaline igneous complexes and heavy-mineral placers. Each leaves a mappable footprint — highly fractionated alkaline intrusions and their alteration, or dense heavy-mineral concentrations in coastal and fluvial sands — together with a distinctive high-field-strength geochemical halo that a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.