A special issue devoted to Abitibi ore deposits in a modern context; preface

THE ABITIBI greenstone belt, which is part of the larger Abitibi subprovince in the Superior province of the Canadian Shield (e.g., Card and Ciesielski, 1986), is the largest known Archcan greenstonegranite terrane (•300 km (N-S) X '-•400-450 km). Mineral production and reserves are significant particularly in relation to volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits and structurally controlled Archcan goldbearing quartz systems, the term Au quartz vein being used in the sense of Lindgren (1933; e.g., The gold-quartz veins of Ontario, p. 662669). Volcanogenie massive sulfide production and reserves to 1989-1990 total '--,424 million metric tons