Manitoba Mining Information

Prospecting For Minerals

Minerals have always been valuable to mankind. The search for minerals or rocks of value has taken place since man first learned how to make a cutting edge from a piece of rock. From the early days of our existence humans have practiced prospecting in an effort to locate minerals and rocks to make survival tools, for aesthetic purposes, or for economic trade.

A quick glance at the colorful historic reports written on the great gold rush days of North and South America and Australia, creates a picture of prospectors that left home and family in search of gold and vast wealth. The determination that those souls demonstrated in the the face of great hardships and accomplishments will never be forgotten. Many a person embarked upon a prospecting quest without a clear understanding of the work involved or the difficulties that they faced. Many folks were fueled only by dreams, strong hands and will power to attempt such a search.

Many of the early tools that prospectors used could not reveal the true mineral potential of an area. On top of that money and resources have always limited the search for minerals. This of course created a situation were prospectors and companies alike were forced to only look for the most valuable minerals and often only if they could see the actual metals or “good indicating” mineralization in the rock, before they would consider it worth spending time and money, to sample it and take the rock out of the bush for laboratory assays. In many instances a prospector looked at a bedrock outcrop when seeking a specific metal and if first glance grab samples didn’t show anything to warrant a more detailed look they moved on.

Prospecting in this age differs from the great gold rush days. The prospector today has better tools to use, greater areas to explore (due to air and land transportation), more geological knowledge and more detailed mapping to utilize. Information and support is often a phone/ radio call away. But the quest to find the next great mineral deposit still lives on in the mind of the new style prospector.

Today the modern prospector’s best chances of finding a new deposit may lay in investigating land that was walked over in the the early days. Modern methods of exploration have advanced the work and scale of prospecting and have indeed earned a place in history. Many of todays mines have resulted from more detailed research and exploration work in many of the same ares that were walked over before.

The days of finding a gold nugget on the ground that sparks a rush may be gone, but the chances of finding a new and valuable mineral resource have increased. The goal of the prospector is still to find minerals.