Every decade the Irish Association for Economic Geology (IAEG) produces a monograph to mark the achievements of the Irish and European mineral sector.

In 2010 the decadal conference was held in Cork, focusing on zinc (Zinc 2010).

Ireland is and has been a key producer of global zinc since the 1960s, and has the highest concentration of zinc per square kilometre on the planet; hence, the conference’s focus on zinc. Current Perspectives on Zinc Deposits, edited by S.M. Archibald and S.J. Piercey, was an outgrowth of this conference.

Dr. Archibald holds a master of science from Memorial University while Dr. Steve Piercey, also an alumni, is a professor and NSERC-Altius Industrial Research Chair in Mineral Deposits with the Department of Earth Sciences.

The book contains the published abstracts from the conference, and key review papers on the current state of knowledge on the geology and genesis of zinc-bearing mineral deposits.

The review manuscripts were written by international experts in economic geology and focused on a variety of topics, including zinc geochemistry including transport and deposition in ore forming fluids, secular variations in the genesis of zinc deposits through time, general overview papers on zinc-bearing mineral deposits, and specific papers on the geology and genesis of zinc deposits in the Irish ore field.

This volume presents a snapshot in the current thinking on the genesis of zinc-ore forming systems, and places them into the broad spectrum of mineral deposits types. While some of the finer points of the contributions might change, the fundamental information will remain pertinent in the coming decades.

The style and quality of the articles makes the volume of interest to academics and industry researchers, and will complement some of the broader ore deposit monographs currently available.