Alan Clark is a mineral deposits geologist, engaged in integrated field and laboratory research on a wide range of critical questions. The Queen's University Central Andean Metallogenetic Project, CAMP, has been responsible for establishing much of the existing metallogenetic framework of this World-class Cu-Au-Ag-Sn-W province, covering both regional and local aspects, including basic stratigraphy, Ar⁴⁰-Ar³⁹, U-Pb and fission track geochronology, tectonics, igneous petrogenesis, hypogene ore genesis and even geomorphology and its impact on supergene enrichment of Cu, Ag and Au deposits. Innovative petrographic techniques including Nomarski differential interference contrast imaging, are clarifying the mysteries of, e.g., magma mixing and hydrothermal alteration.

In addition to the Andes, research is being carried out in the Yukon, British Columbia, the Cornubian province of SW England, Thailand and Zimbabwe. Industrial minerals are increasingly studied, while cooperative research on process mineralogy has been carried out with mining companies for over a decade.