Exploring for That Pot of Gold

Gold mining is not easy. Long before any gold nugget or flake is found, there is significant exploration, extraction, processing, and development that needs to take place. Miners seek solutions for rapid geochemical analysis that will enable them to increase discovery success rates, identify drill targets quickly, make on-site decisions about whether to stop or continue drilling, and decide where to focus on the grid. Miners must also get an accurate report to the capital markets as fast as possible.

But wouldn’t it be great if all one needed to do during the gold mining process is to find that Leprechaun’s pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

We’ve never been able to find that mischievous little creature of folklore, but we can offer you a pot of our top gold-related mining articles. Here they are:

Where to See the World’s Largest Gold Nuggets. Many discoveries of large gold nuggets have been recorded, but few remain. Most were melted down into gold bars or gold coins. Here are profiles of the top five largest ‘named’ gold nuggets which are still in one piece and on display to the public.
Ancient Egypt May Point the Way to Modern Gold Discoveries. Just imagine if you already knew where the most productive gold deposits were without having to invest in exploration! This is the situation in Egypt, where ancient gold mines, abandoned centuries ago, point the way for modern miners.
Portable XRF Analyzers Lead the Way…to Gold. Portable XRF is used in various stages of gold exploration and mining including grass-root exploration (particularly using pathfinder elements), finding source of gold in stream sediments, core logging, identification of lithologies, and even grade control.
Pyrite: The Real Story Behind “Fool’s Gold”. Pyrite is so named from the Greek word for fire (pyr) because it can create sparks for starting a fire when struck against metal or stone. Pyrite is called “Fool’s Gold” because it resembles gold to the untrained eye. While pyrite has a brass-yellow color and metallic luster similar to gold, pyrite is brittle and will break rather than bend as gold does. Gold leaves a yellow streak, while pyrite’s streak is brownish black. Read more about this gold imposter.
Trees, Termites, and …Gold?. To enhance their chances of finding gold, geologists may use geophysical methods to measure variations in the physical properties of rocks (e.g. density, magnetism, electrical conductivity, natural radioactivity, etc) that may indicate the presence of suitable environment for gold deposition.
From Tailings to Treasure? A New Mother Lode of Gold — One South African company abandoned traditional mining to focus on extracting gold from tailings. New technology allows it to recover up to 40% of the gold left in particle form in tailings. In one quarter, they extracted 33,600 ounces of gold, worth nearly US$40 million.
Using Portable XRF Analysis for Ore Grade Control in Mining. Mining geologists perform ore grade control in underground mining operations to figure out where the most profitable ore bodies are, in terms of location and mineral concentration variability. Read how grade control geological mapping aids in underground gold vein operations.