Mineral Exploration & Resource Evaluation

What is Mineral Exploration?

 Mineral exploration is the process of finding economically viable
accumulation of minerals/rocks or petroleum deposits.
 It is a scientific investigation of the earth’s crust to determine if there
are mineral deposits present that may be commercially developed.
 The term “prospecting” is almost synonymous with the term
“exploration”

 The initial signs of potentially significant mineralization are called

“prospects”.
 Through the exploration process, the prospect is investigated to
acquire more and more detailed information.
 The goal is to prove the existence of an ore body (or oil field in
the case of petroleum exploration) which can be mined (or
“developed”).
 Exploration work has four phases, namely;
1. Area selection,
2. Target generation,
3. Resource evaluation and
4. Reserve definition.
Area selection defines permissive regions where mineral
deposits of the type sought plausibly exist based on knowledge
of environments at or near the surface of the Earth’s crust
where the geological processes (e.g., plate tectonics) are or
were favorable for mineral deposit formation (Singer, 1993).
Target generation demarcates, within permissive regions,
prospective areas for further investigations until mineral
deposits of interest are discovered based on exploration models
for the deposit types sought and on relevant idea to geosciences
(geological, geochemical and geophysical) datasets.
Resource evaluation estimates grade and tonnage of
specific minerals or metals in discovered mineral
deposits based largely on systematic drilling.
Reserve definition classifies the various parts of
mineral deposits as ore reserves (proved, probable)
or mineral resources (measured, indicated, inferred)
based on economic and technical feasibility
analysis.
 Historical Background of Mineral Exploration
 What were some of the first resources used?

 Water

 Salt (the mineral Halite) - People were paid in salt make the

exchange.
 Rocks

 What were the first metals used by civilization?

 Gold and Copper were used before 15,000 B.P. Because

they are found in their native state!

 Nature of Mineral Exploration
 A mining operation begins with prospecting and exploration stages
with long periods of investment and high risk of failure.
 Prospecting and exploration are necessary forms of investment and
insurance for the future of any mining company.
 Success in mineral exploration or the acquisition of high-potential
mineral properties determines the survival of mining companies and
industrial nations.
 Prospecting and exploration may discover
Evidence of a mineral occurrence and
Outline its size and character,
 Ore deposits that support a mining operation are "made" through the
collective efforts of project geologists, geophysicists, geochemists,
metallurgists, engineers, chemists, lawyers, and even politicians.
 Some deposits may go through multiple stages of rejection and
recommendation, discovery and development, decline and
abandonment, rediscovery and development, etc., as economic,
technological or political conditions change or geological
understanding is improved.
 An ore body, strictly speaking, is that part of a mineral deposit which
can be mined and marketed at a profit under contemporary
technological, economic and legal conditions.
 Economic conditions and technology are constantly

changing, as are the laws, taxation and restrictive policies of

governments.

 All of these factors dictate whether a deposit of a specific

mineral is ore or is not an ore body.

 Hence, mineral exploration is the search for, and evaluation

of mineral deposits which have the Potential of becoming

ore bodies under expected conditions at some favorable

date in the future.

 Objectives of Mineral Exploration
 The principal objective of mineral exploration is to find

economic mineral deposits.

 To increase the value of a mining company's stock to the

shareholders on a continuing basis, or to yield a profit to the

explorer.
 To discovery or acquisition of new ore reserves and

mineral resources to prolong/ increase production or life of

the company.
 Or, in the case of individuals or exploration companies,

an objective may be to seek a deposit for sale to, or joint

venture with, a major operating company, or to serve as
a basis for stock issue and formation of a new company.
 Each organization involved in exploration must define

its own objectives in terms of mineral commodities,

geographic locations, acceptable size, life, profitability,
and acceptable risk.
 The exploration geologist must be aware of these limits.
 Principles of Prospecting
 Since mineral deposits are characterized by their variability, governed

by different irregularities, the following points must be laid at the

basis of prospecting.

1. The Principle of Comprehensive and Full Exploration

 All bodies in the deposit and the deposit as a whole must be

investigated in detailed geological survey on scales of 1:1000 and

1:2000 (for small deposits) and on scales of 1:10,000 and 1:50,000

(for big ones). Covering the entire deposit,

 The mineral bodies should be completely traversed by mine

opening and bore holes,

 The quality of the mineral and that of associated constituents

in complex ores are to be fully and thoroughly studied,

2. The Principle of Successive Approximations

 It shows upon the conduct of exploration work according to

stages (Phases).

 Such a principle of studying deposits helps any possible need

for re-exploration and extra outlays.

3. The Principle of Uniformity which provides for

 An equally full coverage by mine openings of the entire deposit

or of its individual sections at the same stage of exploration

 Uniformly distributed sampling points within the bounds of an

exploratory opening and those of the deposit, with due regard

for its geological features.

4. The Principle of Minimum Outlays

 The number of openings, samplings and other types of

investigations, as well as the time schedule should be minimal,

 Prospecting Guide (Criterion)
 In the search for mineral deposits it is impossible to examine in
details every square km of the area or a country.
 This would be too expensive, time-consuming and in most cases
pointless.
 An area where required mineral resources can be expected to occur
is therefore delimited using prospecting criteria, that is, geological
features which directly or indirectly suggest the presence of a given
deposit.
 Recognition of the environment and existence of potentially
economic mineral deposits may be based upon a variety of
1. Lithological Criteria
 Different rock formations are characterized by deposits of definite
lithological composition.
 Association with specific types of rocks -- e.g., copper with quartz-
monzonite porphyry, diamonds with kimberlite pipes, tin with
granites, lead and Zinc with carbonate rocks. etc. .
2. Metamorphic Criteria (metamorphic facies are criterion for
metamorphic deposits)
3. Gangue Mineral Association -- e.g. gold associated with quartz-
veins.
4. The Presence of Pathfinders

5. Presence of Electrical Anomalies (Presence of Conductive

Bodies)

6. Outcrops of Valuable Minerals or Productive Rocks

7. Rock Zone Alteration

 Alteration of host rocks taking place during the formation of
mineral bodies is a good prospecting guide.
 These changes become particularly clear in skarns, greisens,
chloritised, sericitised, kaolinised, silicified and dolomitised
rocks.
8. Geochemical Guides
 Proximity to an ore body is indicated in some instances by the
presence of metallic ions in rocks, soil or groundwater.
 Even though the element in question may be present in traces so small
as to be detectable only by delicate chemical tests, a map showing its
distribution may disclose target rings surrounding an ore body.

9. Groundwater as a Guide

 Groundwater in a mineralized region, especially where sulphides are

undergoing oxidation, contains metals and sulphates in amount

ranging from traces to so much that the water is undrinkable.

 Such metals may include Cu, Zn, Pb,
10. Geobotanical and Biochemical Guides
 The possibility of using vegetation as a guide to ore depends;

 Firstly (and probably least in importance), on the suggestion that

metals and other elements may modify the appearance of flora;

 Secondly, on the fact that certain elements play a role in determining

what species of plants which are able or unable to grow in a given

place.
 Some species of plants are poisoned by certain elements in the soil,

while others, if they do not actually thrive on the same substances, are
at least able to tolerate them and thus grow more abundance where
[Link] and Lithologic Guides
 If ore occurs exclusively in a given sedimentary bed, the bed
constitutes an ideal stratigraphic guide.
 A bed or group of beds which contains most of the ore bodies even
though other stratigraphic horizons may not be entirely barren.
 If the containing rock is not a sedimentary formation but an intrusive
body or a volcanic flow, the same principles are applicable so far as
ore search is concerned, but since in such cases the guide cannot
properly be called stratigraphic, the term lithologic is more
appropriate.
 The ore may be syngenetic (an original part of the body of rock) or it
12. Structural Controls on Mineralization
 Nearly all hydrothermal deposits exhibit some degree of structural

control on mineralization.

 Structures (fractures, faults or folds) which form prior to a mineralizing

event are referred to as “pre-mineral”.

 Geologists are keenly interested in pre-mineral structures because these

structures influence the localization of ore by hydrothermal fluids

utilizing these pathways.

 Structures which form after a mineralizing event, and hence may be

responsible for offset or removal of mineralized zones, are referred

13. Dispersion Haloes (Aureols)
 Rocks surrounding ore bodies commonly contain the ore forming
components in microscopic fractions, which, however, exceed the
clark concentration.
 There are two types of dispersion haloes :

a) Primary dispersion haloes– appear as a result of some processes,

which attended the formation of ore body.
 The presence of micro-insets or veinlets surrounding the ore body
or deposits of impregnated (disseminated) ores.
b) Secondary dispersion haloes– arise as a result of chemical and
mechanical destruction and oxidation of primary dispersion haloes.
14. Geophysical anomalies: Due to different physical properties

of rocks and ore minerals, different geophysical anomalies are

observed.

15. Paragenetic: A good prospecting guide is the paragenetic

relationship among individual valuable minerals.

16. Popular: These include: (1) ancient mine workings and

dumps; (2) remnants of old concentration plants; (3)

archaeological and historic information; and (4) localities

which frequently carry the names corresponding to the type of

 Phases of Exploration
 After target selection the first phase of exploration in virgin
regions is called reconnaissance.
 The strategic target of reconnaissance is to identify
mineralized areas.
 This is based on indirect and airborne methods,
preliminary field inspection, geological assumption and
extrapolation.
 In future more and more of this work will be done with the
help of GIS and image processing methods.
 Next phase can be called prospection
 The objective is to discover prospects that will be targets
for further exploration.
 This is a systematic search for so far unknown deposits and
based on geologic inference and postulation of extensions
of known deposits, by outcrop identification and indirect
methods like ground geophysics and till geochemistry.
 At best, a few mineral occurrences or showings will be
identified.
 Third phase is called general exploration or preliminary
deposit investigation.
 Methods are both indirect and direct: surface mapping and
sampling, and drilling in a limited scale.
 As a result we will have plenty of rock and mineralization
analyses, and we are able to roughly outline the
occurrences in size, shape and grade.
 The first real modeling and the first mineral resource
estimates of deposits can be done.
 Fourth phase is that of detailed exploration or final target
investigation or deposit inventory.
 It involves the detailed three-dimensional delineation and physical
sampling of a known target from outcrops, trenches, systematically
spaced boreholes, shafts and tunnels, including bulk sampling for
processing tests.
 This phase should give information enough for a pre-feasibility study
that precedes the crucial final evaluation, feasibility study.
 On the basis of feasibility study the decision of starting or not
starting mining operations will be made.
 It should be noted that exploration continues even after the mine
starts production.
 Prospecting Methods

The prospecting methods are divided into:

1. Geological Exploration Method,

2. Geophysical Exploration Method, and
3. Geochemical Exploration Method.
4. Remote Sensing & GIS Method