Sorry if I got it wrong.

Back when I was doing mineral prospecting with remote sensing, the way it was explained to me by the geochemists was that rock would fracture, and superheated water with metals and silicates in solution would be forced through the cracks. As the rock cooled, the solutes would crystallize, and later be exposed by erosion at the surface. We were looking for gold ore in alluvial fans and talus slopes in Nevada by looking at their reflection spectra in the infrared.

As for the economic imperialism reference, it is no longer necessary to simply steal resources and markets at gunpoint. No one cheats at the game anymore, the trick now is to simply make sure the rules are rigged ahead of time so that they favor your side. In other words, you don't go to another country, occupy it and steal their oil. You just make sure they sell it to the highest bidder on the world market. I.e., the oil will always be available at a price determined solely by market forces, and will be consumed where people can afford to pay for it. It really doesn't matter which country gets it and how much they pay for it, it only matters that the companies involved get to compete against each other in a game they understand, and where they have all the advantages.