A guide to economic optimization of mineral exploration decisions--with detailed information on how to analyze risk and obtain a good measure of net value. Presents a unified approach to the various models used by mining companies to analyze mining prospects and evaluates and compares the models. Presents typical risk scenarios and shows how to apply the economic modeling process to actual situations.

Mineral exploration is an economic activity of worldwide importance. This volume, originally published in 1988, makes a substantial contribution to the understanding of mineral exploration and the major economic, political, and geologic forces that govern it. Some chapters examine the behaviour and performance of particular participants in the exploration process while others focus on specific countries. This is a valuable title for any student interested in environmental studies and the global impact of econonmics.

The book introduces essential concept of mineral exploration, mine evaluation and resource assessment of the discovered mineral deposit to students, beginners and professionals. The book is divided into nine chapters which will help the readers to incorporate the concepts of search for mineral deposits and understand the chances of success. The book discusses the fundamental details like composition of earth and mineral resources, formation of rock and mineral deposits, and the attempt to search for ore deposits to advance applications of remote sensing in mineral exploration. It also covers the details on how to conduct system of survey, evaluation, and how to arrive at a decision to open and carryout further exploration in the operating mine. The book shall be of great interest to geologists and mining community.

After the spectacular successes of the 1960's and 1970's, the mineral exploration business is at a crossroads, facing uncertain t:imes in the decades ahead. This situation requires a re-thinking of the philosophy guiding mineral exploration if it is to emulate its recent performance. The ma:i. n argument of a previous volume titled "Designing Opt:lmal Strategies for Mineral Exploration", published in 1985 by Plenum Publishing Corporation of New York, is that a possible answer to the challenge facing mineral explorationists lies in the philosophy of opt:irn1zation. This new approach should help exploration staff make the best achievable use of the sophisticated and costly technology which is presently available for the detection of ore deposits. The main emphasis of the present volume is placed on the mathematical and computational aspects of the opt:irn1zation of mineral exploration. The seven chapters making up the ma:i. n body of the book are devoted to the description and application of various types of computerized geomathematical models which underpin the optimization of the mineral exploration sequence. The topics covered include: (a) the opt:lmal selection of ore deposit types and regions of search, as well as prospecting areas within the regions (Chapters 2, 3, 4, 6), (b) the designing of airborne and ground field programs for the opt:lmal coverage of prospecting areas (Chapters 2, 3, 4), (c) delineation and evaluation of exploration targets within prospecting areas by means of opt:irn1zed models (Chapter 5).

Few knowledgeable people would deny that the field of mineral exploration is facing some difficult times in the foreseeable future. Among the woes, we can cite a worldwide economic uneasiness reflected by sluggish and at times widely fluctuating metal prices, global financial uncertainties, and relentless pressures on costs despite a substantial slowing down of the rate of inflation. Furthermore, management is forced to tum to more sophisticated and expensive technologies and to look farther afield to more remote regions, as the better quality and more easily accessible ore deposits have now been revealed. This rather gloomy outlook should persuade explorationists to cast about for a new philosophy with which to guide mineral exploration through the challenging decades ahead. Once already, in the early 1960s, a call for change had been heard (Ref. 30 in Chapter 1), when it became obvious that the prospecting methods of yesteryear, so successful in the past, could not keep up with the rapidly growing demand for minerals of the postwar period. The answer, a massive introduction of sophisticated geophysical and geochemical technologies backed by new geo logical models, proved spectacularly successful throughout the 1960s and the 1970s. But for both economic and technological reasons, the brisk pace of the last two decades has considerably slowed down in the early 1980s, as if a new threshold has been reached.

Mineral Exploration: Principles and Applications, Second Edition, presents an interdisciplinary approach on the full scope of mineral exploration. Everything from grass root discovery, objective base sequential exploration, mining, beneficiation, extraction, economic evaluation, policies and acts, rules and regulations, sustainability, and environmental impacts is covered. Each topic is presented using theoretical approaches that are followed by specific applications that can be used in the field. This new edition features updated references, changes to rules and regulations, and new sections on oil and gas exploration and classification, air-core drilling, and smelting and refining techniques. This book is a key resource for both academics and professionals, offering both practical and applied knowledge in mineral exploration. Offers important updates to the previous edition, including sections on the cyclical nature of mineral industry, exploration for oil and gas, CHIM-electro-geochemical survey, air-core drilling, classification of oil and gas resources, smelting, and refining technologies Presents global case studies that allow readers to quickly apply exploration concepts to real-world scenarios Includes 385 illustrations and photographs to aid the reader in understanding key procedures and applications

This practical step-by-step guide describes the key geological field techniques needed by today's exploration geologists involved in the search for metallic deposits. The techniques described are fundamental to the collection, storage and presentation of geological data and their use to locate ore. This book explains the various tasks which the exploration geologist is asked to perform in the sequence in which they might be employed in an actual exploration project. Hints and tips are give. The steps are illustrated with numerous examples drawn from real projects on which the author has worked. The book emphasizes traditional skills and shows how they can be combined effectively with modern technological approaches.