The principles of economic geology

• Minerals may be detected in many ways, and in the past, mainly involved surface prospecting to look for indications of what lay below the surface.

• Minerals may be identified by some of streak test, cleavage, lustre, hardness, fracture, specific gravity, fluorescence, radioactivity, or reaction to acid.

• Information about what lies below the surface comes from magnetic and gravitational anomalies, seismology data and careful geological mapping of the surface.

• Modern prospecting relies largely on gathering data about subsurface structures and then drilling test holes at the most likely sites to get samples.

• In 1625, gunpowder was first used in a mine in Chemnitz, Germany, as a way of breaking up rock and ore, so it could be hauled out of the mine and processed.

• When geologists work out how a particular geological system originally formed, then they are able to predict where valuable minerals might be found.

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