Metals are essential for the needs, wealth and sustainable development of our society. The 2016 Gordon Research Conference on the Geochemistry of Mineral Deposits will address new research directions in economic geology and ore deposit geochemistry that will help meet the increasing resource needs for future generations. Participants from academia and industry will discuss the latest concepts and new ideas about the formation of diverse mineral systems, focusing on the highest value research areas relevant to understanding the formation and distribution of major mineral deposits, mineral exploration targeting and sustainable mining. The program will promote cutting edge lines of research at the industry-academia interface including novel approaches to looking at the regional expression of ore districts and deposits, new tools for target-definition, and effective mining/processing strategies, management, and reclamation. Conference sessions will focus on the fate of ore deposits and their evolution in the near-surface environment, their time scales and episodicity of magmatic and sedimentary ore-forming processes. Sessions will discuss innovations in understanding factors leading to the formation of world-class deposits, such as the importance of magma compositions/fluxes, the evolution of the hydrosphere and atmosphere during Earth's history, and the role of microbes and organic matter for metal transport and deposition.