Sojitz Corporation and Nittetsu Mining Co., Ltd. have obtained a prospecting license in the South Moune area, Moune District, Vientiane province, Lao People's Democratic Republic and started exploration activity in 2009. The South Moune area is located 100 km west of Vientiane and this area is included in the Loei belt which is known as a high copper potential area based on the regional geology. Several campaigns of field works have been conducted from December 2009 to February 2014 by Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), Sojitz Corporation and Nittetsu Mining Co., Ltd. and finally several copper mineralized zones were newly discovered and they were thought to have a potentiality for developing copper mine in the future.
Geochemical survey and preliminary geological survey were carried out for the whole area of the prospecting license (226.25 km²) and, after these surface surveys, three copper occurrences such as Phu Sarana, Phu Pa Nyang, Phu Pa Khii (in total 7.12 km²) were picked up based on the data of geological survey and remarkable copper geochemical anomalies. For these three occurrences, grid soil geochemical survey, trench survey and geophysical survey (TDIP method) were also conducted and, based on the data of these surface surveys, the targets for the drilling survey were selected and the drilling survey for these copper occurrences was commenced in November 2011. The drilling survey of total 51 holes (total length: 13,933.60 m) were carried out until February 2014. Several remarkable mineralized zones were observed in the Phu Sarana and Phu Pa Nyang and mineralized zones have chalcopyrite, bornite and pyrite which associated with quartz-calcite veinlets and dissemination in black mudstone. Considering the copper mineralization in the Phu Sarana and Phu Pa Nyang, copper mineralized zones are closely related to the black mudstone and there is a possibility which indicates that the presence of the black mudstone played an important role in forming copper mineralized zones.
The mineralization type is thought to be the volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit and the basalts which are associated with copper mineralization show the petrochemical characteristics of the back-arc basin basalt. However, comparing with the data of similar type of VMS deposits, the mineralization of this area is characterized by the very low grade of lead and zinc and the lack of pyrrhotite.
Based on the analytical data of the drill cores, grade calculation and resource estimation have been carried out by using the 3D mining software MAPTEK VULCAN. Estimated resource in the Phu Sarana is calculated as approximately 2.3 million tons, average grade is 1.97 % Cu (cut off:1.0 % Cu).
At the present stage, the extension of the copper mineralized zones has not yet confirmed and it is thought that a scout drilling survey in the surrounding areas to identify the new mineralized zones must be needed to increase the resources for future development.

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The Fukusen vein group， a low-sulfidation style epithermal gold-silver vein system， is located in the southeastern area of the Yamada deposit， the Hishikari Mine.
The Fukusen vein group， hosted by the andesitic volcanic rocks， consists of nine sub-parallel quartz veins including six undeveloped veins so far with minor amount of adularia and smectite and generally strike N30° E-N50° E and dip 70° SE-90°.
Exploration activities indicate that the Fukusen No.1 vein extends at least 650m horizontally and 90m vertically with the average thickness of 1.65m and average gold grade of 25 grams per ton. The veins striking N50° E tend to be thicker and higher grade than the veins striking N30° E. Further exploration and development revealed that the Fukusen vein group is strictly controlled by the sub-horizontal argillized layer at the shallower part of the veins.
Volcanic rock samples are taken from the underground drill cores and X-ray diffraction analysis was applied to identify the hydrothermally altered clay mineral assemblages to delineate the thermal gradient responsible for the mineralization of the Fukusen vein group. It is suggested that the northeastern part of the Fukusen vein group is within the quartz-chlorite zone and further exploration is recommended.

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Agency for Natural Resources and Energy has been running a service of GRIAS, Global-Resource Information Archive System, since FY 2014. GRIAS had been built up in order to ensure a stable supply of rare metals into Japan. GRIAS is one of Web GIS (geographic information system used via the Internet), supports users to conduct preliminary survey, feasible study and make a decision of investment. Users can search and select useful information in GRIAS and display as layers on base map of satellite images. GRIAS has various useful GIS contents such as seamless global mosaic images created from ASTER and PALSAR data, regional False Color images and Band Ratio images, detailed alteration zone maps, mineral index maps created from ASTER data.
GRIAS has also various useful functions of GIS such as re-arranging the order of layers, making layers transparent, measuring lengths of lines and areas of polygons, creating 3D images of layered maps, downloading images and uploading user's data. Agency for Natural Resources and Energy keeps a stable operation and an advanced convenience of GRIAS.

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In order to understand the metasomatic process and mechanism of the transformation of ferberite into scheelite under saline hydrothermal conditions, the chemical reaction of ferberite with calcium chloride solution was experimentally examined. Ferberite and calcium chloride solution were sealed in the polypropylene bottle and left for fixed time. Two types of experiments, i.e., experiment 1 using powdered ferberite for knowing compositional changes of solid and solution together with reaction rate, and experiment 2 using ferberite fragments for texture analysis, were carried out at temperatures from 130 to 170 °C using calcium chloride solutions with 0.01 to 1.00 mol/L for 72 to 2016 hours. The run products were filtered by 0.20 μm membrane filters, and the filtrated solution and solid products after removal of fine iron oxides were analyzed.
The identified run products are only scheelite and fine-grained hematite in all runs. In the experiment 1, the amount of scheelite increased with the increase of calcium chloride concentration and temperature. Dissolution rate of ferberite for 0 to 168 hours increased with the increase of initial calcium chloride concentration and the increase of temperature: 4.18×10^-7 mol/m²/s for the conditions of initial calcium chloride 0.01 mol/L-130 °C and 4.60×10^-6 mol/m²/s for 1.00 mol/L-170 °C. In the runs of experiment 2, octahedral scheelite crystals grew outside on the host ferberite surfaces. The increase of crystal size over time and smooth edges of fine-grained crystals can be explained by the Ostwald ripening. Random orientations of scheelite crystals on ferberite may be due to non-epitaxial growth.

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Mongolia has considerable reserves and resources of gold in both placer and primary deposits. Gold has been mined in the country since ancient times, but recently it plays main role on country’s mining activity as well as economic development. Placer gold deposits are studied much and most of them are now under mining activity. Primary gold deposits are studied weakly and only Boroo gold deposit is mined and other deposits are under development study level. Distribution of gold deposits and occurrences depends on mineralization type, but generally shows linear form along the independent geotectonic units, or bigger fault zone. The data of various geological reports of gold metallogenic and gold bearing belts of Mongolia suggest that there are 17 belts containing total amount of 2,100 tons of gold.

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Fluorite is one of the leading economic minerals in Mongolia. The ore reserves of fluorite of the country ranks fourth in the world. The first fluorite occurrence was found in 1933, then first economic fluorite deposit was discovered on 1939. Based on the morphology of major ore bodies, the fluorite deposits could be subdivided into four main types as vein deposits, vein shaped mineralized zones, lenticular bodies and metasomatite ore in carbonate host. Regarding to mineral assemblage and paragenetic sequences, fluorite deposits and occurrences in Mongolia are divided into 3 main types and 10 subtypes. Fluorite deposits and occurrences in Mongolia are mainly distributed at the east and southeast part of country, making wide zone with 200-300 km width and more than 1,100 km in length. This zone continues to northeast direction to the Russian territory and makes one big metallogenic province in the world. Fluorite mineralization of Mongolia shows close relationship with Mesozoic tectonics and magmatic activity.

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Mongolia possesses considerable identified reserves of marine sedimentary-metamorphosed sheeted phosphorites. More than 60 deposits and occurrences were discovered and identified in Mongolia. Most of phosphorus deposits and occurrences are sedimentary, both marine and terrestrial origin. General distribution of phosphorus resources is concentrated into two main localities (Fig. 1), Khubsugul and Zavkhan, both occurring in the metamorphic-sedimentary sequences of Neo-Proterozoic to Cambrian age. Total estimated phosphorite reserve is 2.4 billion tons, but no mining activity is yet started on phosphorite deposits because of geo-ecological matter.

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