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Mineral resources have always been an essential foundation of human civilization. Current and projected economic growth, especially in China and India, highlight an increasing worldwide need for metals, as reflected by prices that are near historic highs for a wide range of mined commodities. Even with increased recycling and substitution, increasing demand requires that metals and other rare elements will continue to be mined from ore deposits. Such deposits can only be utilized in an environmentally responsible manner, if the ore elements are highly enriched by natural chemical and physical processes. These processes operate over a great range of spatial and temporal scales in the Earth’s interior or at its surface, from the earliest geological records of our planet to the present day.