Discovery Thinking In Ore-Search

NUMEROUS ore deposits remain to be discovered. Many exposures of favorable host rock bodies within mineral provinces have not been adequately scrutinized geologically-the ore potential in buried portions of such rock bodies is enormous. Inasmuch as the more obvious deposits have been found, exploration has become more scientific and more expensive. Yet discovery continues to be very rewarding if exploration is intelligently approached. Although a number of exceptions can be cited, systematic geological exploration for ore on a significant scale has developed during the last two decades. So rapid has been the development of systematic exploration that a comparison of modern programs with those as recent as 1940, would suggest that many large mining companies and various Government agencies were hardly in the exploration business at that time. What is modern ore exploration? What major factors affect its success-economic discovery?