Mine finders

— The following is an excerpt from Mining Explained, published by the The Northern Miner.

As a result of advances in technology, mineral exploration has changed dramatically from the days when the lone prospector packed a pick and a rabbit’s foot into a canoe and headed into the bush for a season’s work. Mineral exploration and mining is now a business that calls for highly skilled individuals to work as a team, using powerful, often computerized, exploratory and mining equipment. The exploration team can include prospectors, geologists, geophysicists and geochemists (and their assistants), whose skills complement each other as they search for new mines.

Prospectors still play an important role in generating showings (evidence of local mineralization), which are later optioned and explored by mining companies. To find these showings, prospectors rely on geological maps, government reports, assessment files and aerial photographs.

Government geologists lay the groundwork for future discoveries by conducting regional-scale programs and by preparing reports and maps from the data gathered. The release of new information by government geological surveys is, therefore, eagerly anticipated by keen prospectors. Exploration is a competitive business, so having the jump on the competition can make the difference between making a discovery and missing out on one.

Prospectors test promising areas by early-stage field work, which might include following a train of mineralized boulders to their source or collecting samples from soils and rocks to identify and test anomalies. Old-fashioned “boot-and-hammer” prospecting is still an important tool in mineral exploration and has led to many spectacular discoveries, including the Voisey’s Bay nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in Labrador. Because prospectors play such an important role in finding new showings, some governments offer small grants to encourage their continued efforts.

Prospectors often vend their properties to mining companies, which will then send out a team of geologists to carry out more detailed sampling programs. A geophysicist searches for variations in the physical characteristics of the Earth that may be caused by the presence of minerals. A geochemist analyzes the metal content in rocks, soils, surface waters or plants, searching for anomalous values that differ from background metal levels in the region. Usually, more than one technique is applied to check any anomalies that are identified. Trenching or pits may provide some early samples of mineralized rock for testing.

Advanced properties see the arrival of diamond drillers. These men and women spend much of their time in field camps and are accustomed to moving from job to job since diamond drill contracts seldom last long.

In all but the smallest field camps, one of the most important members is the camp cook, whose offerings play a large part in sustaining the morale of the crew.

The miners

Once the mine is in production, all of the various mining functions require specialized equipment operators. All operators fit the bill as miners, but individual roles include drillers, muckers (mucking machine operators), blasters (who use explosives to break rock), rock-bolters (who insert rock bolts to support a mine’s ceiling and walls), pipefitters (who string the pipes that supply water and compressed air to the drills), electricians, carpenters, maintenance crews and so on.

Underground mining skills are not unlike those required in the more familiar industrial trades or technical professions.

When the mine is on surface, only the equipment changes (and it’s generally much, much bigger). The teamwork is the same. Open-pit miners operate huge bulldozers, loaders and haulage trucks carrying several hundred tonnes in each load, giant shovels which scoop up tens of tonnes in a single bite and massive rotary drills for drilling the blast holes needed for open-pit mining.