Scientific Prospecting

In the past, mineral exploration in Manitoba and elsewhere has been done by surface geological reconnaissance, where the orebody was exposed on surface. Geological reports and maps formed a principal part of the equipment of exerienced prospectors, who examined in closer detail the more favourable areas. Prospectors looked for any geological condition which is different from its surroundings in some perculiar way. It may be a structure, an abrupt change in rock types, a contact, a sign of chemical alteration, etc.

After a century of examining surface outcrops, we can safely say that those orebodies which outcrop on surface have already been found. For future mineral discovery we must be able to extract information from structures overlain by heavy overburden, or by rock capping. For some time now there has been a growing body of special knowledge to help find these hideen deposits, called GEOPHYSICS