Equipment used directly in mineral deposits research includes inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry, x-ray diffraction, electron microprobe and scanning electron microscopy, apparatus for gas-flow fluid inclusion study of mineral phases, and for fluorescence and cathodoluminescence microscopy; plus various polarizing and reflected light microscopes.

Increasingly, computers have become important in the study of metallic mineral deposits here at OSU. We use geographic information systems (GIS) technology that includes digitized topography, geology, geophysics, geochemistry, metal/mineral occurrence, etc. Researchers routinely interact with personnel at the Center for Mapping as well as in other departments at the University.

The Department is home to very good computer facilities. Researchers have at their fingertips two UNIX workstation systems, and both are linked to OSU mainframe computers, and to a Cray YMP supercomputer at the Ohio Supercomputer Center. The Ohio Visualization Laboratory, also located on Campus provides strong support for studies that require image analysis and visualization.