Keith R. Long

Publications listing

Interests: 

Mineral economics

Economic geology

Resource assessment

Environmental assessment

Environmental assessment

 

520-670-5512

Fax 520-670-5113

klong@usgs.gov

Education

Experience

Before joining the USGS full-time in 1988, I spent several summers in mineral exploration from Montana to Chihuahua, Mexico. I helped launch the Center for Inter-American Mineral Resource Investigations in Tucson in 1989. As area specialist for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru, I pursued project development and had a large role in the Bolivian Altiplano mineral resource assessment project. Through supervising compilation of mineral occurrence data and analyzing regional geologic data, I laid the groundwork for a never completed mineral resource assessment of the Andes. I later participated in field work near the US border in Sonora, Mexico and consulted for the Energy program on resource assessment issues. In 1995, I joined the National Mineral Resource Assessment project, completing compilation and analysis of a database of significant known deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States (http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of98-206 ; see also Economic Geology, May, 2000, p. 629-644). I also joined ongoing mineral resource and environmental assessment efforts in the Pacific Northwest. For the Coeur d'Alene Life-Cycle Project I estimated tonnage and metal content of tailings disposed of into the Coeur d'Alene River from historic production data. More recently, I have begun developing cost-filters for various deposit types. I have also published a study on basic principles of mining law, several descriptive and grade-tonnage models, and a widely used glossary of Spanish mining and geological terms. I recently taught a class on the "Economics of land and water in the western United States" at the University of Arizona.

Current Activities

I am spread thinly over several projects: (1) for the Assessment Methods project I am developing cost-filters for porphyry copper deposits mined by open-pit methods with heap-leach or flotation recovery; (2) for the Headwaters project I consult on mineral economic and mineral assessment issues and help with forecasting mineral exploration and development; (3) for the Coeur d'Alene Life-Cycle project I am publishing analyses of historical mining, milling, and tailings management practices and developing tools for environmental risk analysis; and (4) for Surveys and Analysis (and the next round of the National Assessment) I continue to maintain, expand, and update the Significant Deposits database.