PROSPECTING, whether it be the search for minerals by a lone prospector, or by two or more prospectors, or by an or ganized party of trained men in a more or less unknown region, or by an operating company in its producing property at depth, is how our mineral deposits are discovered and developed. Geophysi cal prospecting has helped, particularly with petroleum. In pros pecting, time, patience, optimism, and money are essentials. (See GEOPHYSICS ; PETROLEUM.) The mineral industry of any advanced country is second in im portance to its welfare, agriculture being first ; therefore, prospect ing for and the mining, metallurgy, and manufacturing of metals are basic to civilization.
Generally, when prospecting is mentioned, gold comes to the mind of the layman, but there are many other minerals of consid erable marketable value and industrial use—antimony, asbestos, bauxite, beryllium, chromite, graphite, manganese, mercury, mica, molybdenum, nickel, platinum group, tantalum, tin, titanium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium, zinc, and zirconium, for example.
Seepages of oil and structures favourable thereto, and oil-bear ing shale should be examined.
Even deposits of building stones, cement-making rock, and sand and gravel should not be overlooked.
In recent years, to list a few important deposits found through out the world, the following minerals may be mentioned: Alumin ium ores (bauxite) in Europe; chrome ore in Turkey and the Philippines; copper ores in Rhodesia and Nevada (Rio Tinto) ; gold in California (Golden Queen), Nevada (Jumbo), Fiji, New Guinea, and the Philippines ; manganese in South Africa ; nickel in British Columbia and Brazil; potash in New Mexico; and radium and silver in north-west Canada. These particular discoveries were made in regions ranging in climate and topography from the Arctic Circle to the tropics and from plains to mountains and jungle. No conditions are too severe for the determined and ex perienced prospector ; but it can be said that the natives or moun tain people of some countries, as in South America and Asia, do some searching and occasionally bring worthwhile deposits to the attention of engineers or scouts for exploration companies.
Minerals of similar appearance frequently mislead prospectors and others: Mica, iron pyrite, pyrrhotite, and chalcopyrite are mistaken for gold; graphite, for molybdenite ; dolomite, for cole manite ; stibnite, for bismuthinite; marcasite, for tellurides; zinc ite, and erythite, for cinnabar; stannite, for tetrahedrite ; barite, for scheelite; garnierite, for malachite; and obsidian, for pitch blende.
Surface rocks stained by copper, iron, manganese, and mercury are misleading because frequently there is no persistence of ore at depth.
The black sands of certain beaches and river bars, and such sands caught in the sluices of hydraulicking and dredging opera tions, have misled many a man into believing that they are high in gold and platinum. In a few places these sands, which are mostly iron minerals, have paid to work. They have also on some dredg ing operations in which they are a highly concentrated product.
Gold does not exist in colloidal condition in ores and waters or in any other form such that assays cannot detect it ; assays get all the gold and silver, and custom plants pay on assays only.
Because not more than one property in two hundred submitted for examination to exploration companies becomes a mine, a prospector should make sure by development and by assays of representative samples that a claim is really worth attention. An outcrop or a small pit does not mean an "enormous tonnage," nor will companies that are looking for deposits consider such a show ing.
Prospecting is permitted on public lands in certain countries under regulations which require that a certain amount of work be done each year. If work is not continued each year, claims be come forfeitable to anyone who re-stakes or re-pegs them. No prospecting is permitted on private property unless an arrange ment is made with the owner. There are regulations for placers and for lodes.