Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/261649
8 www.resourceworld.com F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 4 Each of these companies has either made a new mineral discovery or has significantly expanded known mineralization. By Ellsworth Dickson Despite advancements made in technologies such as geophysics, geochemistry and computer modeling of mineral deposits, explora- tion remains a risky endeavour. Mineral exploration has been going on for thousands of years. As might be expected, visible deposits on surface were mined from the top down, often using fire to heat the rocks and cold water to fracture them. With the world's growing population needing commodities, the mining sector grew and eventually most of the easy mineral deposits were discovered. There was a huge leap forward in the 1950s when geophysical surveys came into use; however, geophys - ics only provides a target that needs to be drilled to prove up an economic deposit. Today, each mineral exploration company has its own approach for finding and developing deposits. Some seek out new deposits (greenfield) based on regional geophysics and geochemistry. Since deposits often occur in clusters, other companies like to acquire ground in established mining camps. Others stake claims along major trends that offer a favourable geological environment. Still others buy claims from prospectors who have brought them rock samples with encouraging assays. Sometimes explorers are only interested in projects where a deposit has already been found that offers potential for expansion. Similarly, some companies are only interested in past-producing mines (brownfield) that closed down for various reasons. There are a number of aspects to exploration that make the pro - cess risky, the main one being Mother Nature herself. While there are thousands of prospects that have interesting mineral showings, it is actually a rare geological event that creates a deposit that can be a viable mining operation. Hence, many prospects will fail. Nevertheless, some are successful as can be seen by the products around us, the vast majority of which is derived from mining. Other exploration risks include fluctuating metal prices, lack of infrastructure, difficult access, civil unrest, unfriendly govern - ments, environmental and permitting issues, First Nations issues, bearish stock market sentiment, financing challenges, high regula- tory expenses, tricky metallurgy and even winter. Interestingly, luck can play an important role as I have seen a number of mineral deposits uncovered by loggers during road building. While there are many companies that have made new discoveries or defined significant deposits based on good showings, we have chosen 16 companies with various minerals of interest. A list of other discoverers of note can be found on page 13. THE ORIGINS OF WEALTH D iscoverers THE Drill operations at the Premier Gold Mines Cove gold project within the Eureka-Battle Mountain gold trend, Nevada. Photo courtesy Premier Gold Mines Ltd.