Intensified Gold Exploration
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The Discovery of a goldfield is a rare and difficult event which contrasts with the normal outcome of exploration that is non-discovery. As there are many gold provinces globally and numerous discoveries annually, the recent and historical records of success are a great source of ideas to learn from and to enhance the rate of discovery. Over the last two decades, important gold discoveries have been made in well-established gold provinces such as Australia, Canada, and the U.S.A, regions with a long history of production like Ghana, and some further countries such as China, Mali, Tanzania, and Peru that received lesser attention during the twentieth century. In contrast to the dominance of gold-only deposits throughout the last millennium of gold production, a significant proportion of recent discoveries are gold-plus, especially Cu–Au.
There have been some golden periods of exploration success in various parts of the world that provide inspiration for exploration and sources for learning. Examples include the discoveries in Victoria (1850s), Carletonville (1930s) and Welkom (1940s) in the Witwatersrand (1886), in the Carlin gold province of Nevada (1961 and 1980s), in the Yilgarn Craton (1980–1990s), and SW Pacific (1980s). Any area that is the focus of one of these golden periods attracts heightened exploration activity and funding at the expense of less productive areas.
Meanwhile, there could be an additional knowledge to glean from non-success. Despite being the world’s major source of gold for the twentieth century, South Africa stands out for its lack of recent exploration success with no new goldfields discovered since Evander in 1951. This lack of exploration success has led to an around 80% tumble in gold production since the 1970 peak. One of its significant consequences is a major decrease in revenue affecting employment in that industry. (1) Visit here! as these other industries might also have some prominent impacts on the community as they explore new places for their gold mining.
Modern mineral exploration has been driven largely by technology. Many mineral discoveries since the 1950s could be attributed to geophysical and geochemical technologies developed by both industry and government. Even though industrial venture in in-house exploration research and development in the United States decreased during the 1990s, new technologies such as tomographic imaging (developed by the medical community) and GPS (developed by the defense community) were newly applied to mineral exploration. Research in basic geological sciences, geophysical and geochemical methods, and drilling technologies could improve the effectiveness and productivity of mineral exploration. These fields sometimes overlap and developments in one area are likely to cross-fertilize research and development in other areas. (2) Lay eyes on these other industries as they might be capable of exploration and acquisition of gold! Get additional info here.
Underlying physical and chemical processes of formation are common to many metallic and nonmetallic ore deposits. A good deal of data is lacking about the processes of ore formation ranging from how metals are released from source rocks through transport to deposition and post-deposition alteration. Modeling of these processes has been limited by significant gaps in thermodynamic and kinetic data on ore and gangue (waste) minerals, wall-rock minerals, and alteration products. Except for proprietary data delivered by industries, detailed geologic maps and geochronological and petrogenetic data for interpreting geologic structures in and around mining districts and in frontier areas that might have significant mineral deposits are not available. These data are critical to an understanding of the geological history of ore formation. A geologic database might be beneficial not only to the mining industry but also to land-use planners and environmental scientists. In many instances, particularly in arid environments where rocks are exposed, detailed geologic and alteration mapping has been the key factor in the discovery of major copper and gold deposits. Gold mining industries could catalyze development ventures. Do you believe gold to be a safe refuge as well? More information is available here! Check the disclaimer on my profile and landing page.
Source 1: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/1743275811Y.0000000019?journalCode=yaes20
Source 2: https://www.nap.edu/read/10318/chapter/5
