Reviews of my Economic Geology 1st Edition: Note that copies for the 2nd Edition only reach reviewers in mid-August 2020

W. L. Pohl (2011) Economic Geology, Principles and Practice: Metals, Minerals, Coal and Hydrocarbons – an Introduction to Formation and Sustainable Exploitation of Mineral Deposits. 663 Pages, 294 Figures, 28 Tables and 65 Colour Photographs. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.

Economic Geology Bulletin , August 2013

Long expectations bring good results: The latest issue of Economic Geology contains a review of my book by Eric Anderson from the USGS, Denver.

Eric gives a very good overview of the contents and concludes with positive verdicts such as

'well organized'

'particularly enlightening'

'helpful reference material when starting new mineral exploration projects'

'suitable textbook for upper-level undergraduate or first-year graduate courses'

'introductory to the economic geology professional'

'nice addition to the libraries of professional geoscientists'

You will, I hope, sympathize with me that I am very pleased and grateful.

Economic Geology (Bulletin of the Society of Economic Geologists), September-October 2013, v. 108, p. 1517-1518, doi:10.2113/econgeo.108.6.1517

Geology Today, March 2012

In this issue, Tony Waltham is not less friendly about my Economic Geology: Principles and Practice than Richard Sillitoe below.

Evaluative keywords include

'impressive overview of a huge subject'

'the English language cannot be criticised'

'great resource for anyone without access to a comprehensive library'

'some 2000 references'

'its index is a weak point'

'a valuable reference source on many a private bookshelf'

If you should not have noticed, clicking on 'Economic Geology Book' in this website, you can locate a much expanded downloadable pdf-version of the Index.

Printed indexes of books are never sufficiently extensive to satisfy reader's needs. Knowing this from my own frustrations, I decided to offer an expanded digital version for download that should facilitate search. This version covers the whole book and includes the printed Index. Good luck with your search! Walter.

Mineralium Deposita, October 2011

The first review of my book is now available in Springer's Mineralium Deposita website, written by Richard H. Sillitoe. If you have full access to the journal you can read the text. For others, let me provide a sample of friendly keywords that appear in the review. Considering copyright issues, I can hardly publish the entire review here.

'veritable magnum opus'

'entertaining and eminently practical'

'particularly informative'

'well and broadly described'

'properly emphasise(s)'

'refreshingly up to date'

'modern feel'

'highly readable'

'...advanced students of economic geology, mining engineering and environmental studies would certainly find much of interest by perusal of selected sections. Practitioners would also gain insights into fields well beyond their specialities, which was certainly the case with this reviewer. Economic Geology: Principles and Practice merits a place on the shelves of all university and geological society libraries.'

Of course, Richard Sillitoe criticised a few points, too. You will, I hope, understand that I won't provide the full list. Among them, 'niggling grammatical errors' strikes me especially because I really tried hard to do my best when writing the book. Yet even then, I already realised that I would never master all intricacies of Shakespeare's language. It is beautiful and pliable, but only so far...

To finish this short summary of a review, allow me to illustrate by one example of what Richard probably meant when he called the treatment entertaining. The Chapter 6.5 Applications of Coal Geology (Page 507ff) is introduced with the following citation from the tale The Giridih Coal-Fields in Vol. II of the book 'From Sea to Sea' (Macmillan 1900):

An engineer, who has built a bridge, can strike you nearly dead with professional facts; the captain of a Ganges river steamer can, in one hour, tell legends sufficient to fill half a book, but a couple of days spent on, above and in a coal mine yields more mixed information than two engineers and three captains

Rudyard Kipling 1888

PDF under DOI 10.1007/s00126-011-0381-4