Exploration Methods

The methods used to find and evaluate mineral resources are resource-specific. This is very apparent, for example, in the differences of exploration approaches and costs between the search for metallic ores and for petroleum, as illustrated in Figs. 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. Likewise, the exploration for different metallic resources, for instance volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits of copper, lead, and zinc on the one hand, and vein deposits of gold and silver on the other, require fundamentally different methods of exploration.