Prospecting And Exploration Of Minerals In Australia

Geological mapping

Discuss about the Sewerage and Transmission Line Easements.

This research paper is about prospecting and exploration of minerals in Australia. Exploration is the process of getting commercially viable mineral concentration from a particular mine while prospecting can be defined as the process of searching for an exploitable economically minerals deposits. The prospecting and exploration strategies that need to be undertaken to enable the acquisition of the mineral deposit include geological mapping, geophysical techniques, and geophysical methods. Transparency and materiality are the main principles of the NJORC codes and the competent person must give explanation on the assumption of materials underlying the declaration of the exploration results, ore reserves and mineral resources.

Mineral exploration is the process of getting commercially viable mineral concentration from a particular mine. The process is more intensive, professional and organized form of mineral prospecting and it uses the prospecting services. The process starts with finding and exploration of the deposit of minerals. The geologist and surveyors are prominent in the study of the feasibility of the future operation of mining. The process is based on the scientific understanding of the modern equipment. It involves the geochemical and geological mapping, techniques of geochemical and satellite imagery (Botin, 2013).

Prospecting is the process of searching for the exploitable economically minerals deposits. It involves roaming the areas for the indication of the mineralization of the ores outcrops, soils and sediments. The red, yellow and brown of the limonitic materials can show the sulfide-bearing veins leaching and the disseminated body of the ore. Blue, weathered outcrops and green could show the oxidized copper minerals, black can show the presence of the oxidized minerals of manganese and green and yellow can show the presence of silver halides (Bullock, 2011).

• To improve the understanding of the impact of the activity of the igneous. The process of exploration helps the miners to understand the effects of igneous activities which may be advantageous or dangerous to the mining process. Exploration process assists in the evaluation of the behaviour of different igneous activities when subjected to different circumstances(Committee, 2014). The reports compiled after the exploration of a site by the explorers and geologist engineers will be used by the future individuals who may have interest in the site for the purposes of mineralization or rehabilitation of the site. These individuals will find it easy to understand the igneous activities of the particular site already explored by the previous researchers. 
• To map the geochemical footprints and alterations under the cover and also assessing the economic potential of the area of states geology. The process of exploration assist in the evaluation of the potential of a given region through experimental setup performed to determine the nature of the area in terms of its geology. The potential sites that have high chances of possessing minerals for future mineralization making it easy for the current miners to locate these sites and carry out mining activities.
• To identify the vectors of regional scales to mineralization. The process of exploration assists in the identification of potential areas where minerals are present. The regional scale vectors for the potential sites can be identified through exploration of different sites in different geographical regions(Magazine, 2013). The exploration process also makes it possible for the miners to know the extent to which the region which has minerals is extended to. These regional scales are critical in the evaluation of the number of minerals a particular site possesses and whether to go on with the mining process or not.
• To support and apply real-time data collection technology. The process of exploration enables the researchers to apply the real-time data collection technology which makes the research to more accurate and fasters. The real-time data collection technology is important when the mineralization process need to be performed immediately after the exploration process. There are currently numerous technologies that are currently being used by the explorers for the purposes of data collection which provides accurate data for a short duration. These technologies are backed up with laboratory testing of the samples collected from the site when determining the mineralization of a particular site
• To test the prospective indices made from the earlier studies. The process of exploration assist the explorers to determine the validity of the prospective indices made from the previous researchers. Different regions are likely to change geographically with time making it necessary to carry out frequent exploration of these sites by the use of real-time data collection technology to provide the data at that particular time(Institute, 2013).

The prospecting and exploration strategies that need to be undertaken in the acquisition of the mineral deposit

 Geological mapping; this is the pictorial surface record and or the underground geological data. The aerial photos are normally used as the basis of mapping since they show the topography. Mapping selects an area for the mineral for the more expensive techniques to be employed where they can be successful (Hustrulid, 2012).

Geophysical techniques; it involves the seismic methods, magnetic methods for identifying the iron ore, gravity methods to identify the underlying rocks which are less dense than the rock on the surrounding, and the electrical method.

Geophysical methods; this is the done in the boreholes and involves measuring the diameter of the hole, electromagnetic ray logging, density logging and resistivity logging. It includes the geochemical surveys, remote sensing and identification of fossils (Institute, 2014)

State	Name and geographical locality of the mining site	Geographical setting	Shareholding company	Major ore-bearing rock type	Economic use of the deposit
Victoria	Allendale	Located northeast of Creswick in the south of Hepburn	Mount Rommel mining limited	tungsten	Used to make many alloys
Queensway	Bowen basin	It extends from Collinsville in the north and to Moura to the south in central Queensway (Kumar, 2015)	Peabody Energy	Permian marine rock and biotite granite	The mines produce thermal coal to the domestic, market
New south wales	Hunter Valley	Extends from the north of Sidney	PBH Billiton	Sulphide bearing ore	Ears foreign exchange when exported
Western Australia	Boddington gold mine (Australasian, 2014)	boddington	Newmont	pyrite	Use to make ornaments that are the source of money after marketing (Australasian, 2013)
South Australia	brukunga	naira	Brukunga mine site remediation board	pyrite	Production of the sulfuric acid needed to manufacture fertilizer

National parks are the conservation, natural areas, or wilderness used for protecting the biodiversity maintaining cultural environment.  The objective of the national parks is to preserve the endemic species and halt the development that put them under pressure. They also preserve the natural landscape and cultural environment. A range of environmental aspects need  to be assessed when risk assessment is being undertaken the phase of planning exploration the better understanding of the heritage and cultural values is need of the proposed area of exploration, both the native and non-native is needed to ensure that program of exploration does not interfere with the important object (Australasian, 2016).

Geophysical techniques

Under the act of 1974 of national parks and wildlife, it is an offence for a person to harm any object in the national park both native and non-native in the case of mining. Good planned and managed exploration should have less impact on the plants, animals, threatened and endangered species. It is needed that a person should no pick any species in the park or harm and should not do anything that causes the damage to the critically endangered species (Australasian, 2014).

 The act of their native identify the title of the native that may exist in some of the lands. Normally, some of the acts such as giving freehold title or some leases over their land may extinguish the title of native over the land. Where there is the existence of the native title, the authorities of mining may be given the requirements to negotiate a good agreement with the relevant titles before the commencement of the undisturbed natural development. If the conditions of the permit procedures are met the exploration can take place in the national parks (Navin, 2010).

Native title has become very important in the Australia and mining law is not complete without taking it into consideration. This legislation protects and recognizes the native title rights against the dealing ion the land in future including all the operation of mining. The title rights should exist in accordance with the customs and the laws of the aboriginal people, where they have, managed their traditional connection with the titles and their lands have not been removed by the law. Native title rights have become very important to the miners because the native title act issues the holders of the title rights to negotiate with the projects including the grant to mining and exploration (Pohl, 2010).

A party may apply for the tribunal for the determination that will consider allowing the activity if mining in a certain site. Aboriginal cultural heritage may exist on the land that doesn’t depend on the interest of the existed native title. All the states have the rules and laws that give the protection to the native archaeological sites by way of the consent of the minister.  A miner is needed to get the clearance of the aboriginal heritage before starting any mining operation on the site (Register, 2013).

The requirements of the aboriginal heritage and native title issuers that many miners are required to face as the mineral deposit that tends to be in areas with many native populations. Legislation of the native title need both the native claimants and miners to consider the interest of one another. Negotiation can take time and where the miners are not familiar with the norms and culture of the native communities, may need the assistance of the experienced experts. The interested native parties can allow the miners to the traditional lands or sites and need compensation which may include the royalties, incentives, cash payments and training (Academy, 2012).

Native title

JORC code is the code for the reporting on the public and not to regulate how the competent person estimates the ore reserves and mineral resources. The code also sets minimum standards for the results of the mineral exploration, ore reserves and mineral resources. JORC compliant is the manner of reporting and not to the estimates.  The reports prepared by the JORC codes are used by the investors for the purposes of comparison with the exploration reports in case there is compliance with the codes. JORC sets minimum standards for the public reports of the ore reserves, mineral resources and exploration results. It provides the mandatory system for the grade and tonnage classification and estimates according to the confidence of geology (Subhash, 2014). There is need for a competent person to undertake all the processes involved. For the exploration results to be accepted by the JORC, it must be;

• Clear and unambiguous; the result should be transparent to enable the reader to understand all the information the competent person should ensure that the readers are not misled with the information
• Materiality; it requires that the report have all the important information that the professional advisors would need, and what they are expecting to find in the report to make a good decision regarding the exploration results.
• Competence; it needs the report to be made by the responsible and qualified person known as the competent person(Sutcliffe, 2010).

All the disclosures of the exploration target must show the description of the process to know the tonnage band grade used to describe the exploration target. Exploration target is the statement that defines the set of geology where the estimates quoted as the range of grade and tonnage relates to mineralization. Exploration results are the data and information produced by the program of the mineral exploration that can be useful to the investors but is not among the declaration of the mineral resources (Sutcliffe, 2010).

Transparency and materiality are the main principles of the NJORC codes and the competent person must provide explanation on the assumption of materials underlying the declaration of the exploration results, ore reserves and mineral resources. The benchmark of the materiality should be considered that includes the aspects relating to the exploration results that the advisors would want to see the competent person. The competent person should not be silent on any aspect of the absence or the presence of comment can interfere with the perception of the public or the value of the occurrence of the minerals. The clear maps and diagrams that represent the context of geology must be included in the public report (Association, 2014)

A public report concerning the exploration results and targets of the company and must reflect the documentation prepared by an individual who is competent. The company providing the public report should indicate the name of the competent person and also if the person is a full-time employee and the person’s employer. The potential for the conflict of interest by the competent person must be disclosed according to the principle of transparency. The relationship between the company and the competent person that has made the report must be disclosed in the public report. The report must be compiled together with the written consent of the competent person as to the context of how it appears (Kumar, 2014).

NJORC codes

A competent person is a mineral industry professional who is a member of Institute of metallurgy and mining in Australia, or the Institute of a recognized professional organization or the Institute of the geoscientist. The person must have a minimum of 5-year experience that is relevant in the style of mineralization and in the field being undertaken by the individual. In case the competent person is compiling documentation on the results of exploration, the relevant experience must be in exploration. The competent person must have relevant experience in approximation in case the person is to estimate or supervise mineral resources. The major qualifier in the description of a competent person is in the word relevant. The determination of what institute relevant experience may be a common sense exercise (Committee, 2014).

In addition to the experience in the mineralization style, the individual responsible for the compilation of the results of exploration should have adequate experience in the relevant technique of analytics and sampling to the deposit under consideration to understand the problem may affect the reliability of the information. The individual should be satisfied clearly in their mind that they can demonstrate and face their peers in the community and in case there is the existence of doubt, the person should seek assistance from other experienced peers (Kumar, 2015).

There is some critical information that the engineering geologist provide to the technical services division for the whole of mine plan. The engineering geologist provides information concerning the management of the mine and the potential mineralized zone to the technical service division. The geologist provides maps that describe structures, rocks, and minerals occurring in the region in the mine plan.  The explanation should be provided concerning the calculation of the ore and how it can become of economic importance when mined. The information on the mine plan basically will entail boundaries and type of on-site rocks, geologic features, geologic units, man-made and natural features, proposed and natural topography (Kumar, 2015).

The engineering geologist provides the information on the type of testing that was performed on the region, the interval in which the samples were taken, and the type of samples that were used in conducting the assessment of the mine site. The information concerning the history of the mine site including the description of the proposed, existing, and previous land use of the site is also provided by the engineering geologist to the technical services division. All the mine site usage including previous earthwork, subsurface and surface storage, structures, basements, underground storage tank, septic tanks, pits, trash and debris are also provided by the engineering geologist. The present and past usage of the mine site, waste disposal, industrial production, hazardous substance, toxic, pesticides, fertilizers, chemicals, farming, animal grazing, poultry, dairy, and any agricultural activities should also be included in the report (Magazine, 2013).

Competent person

The report by the engineering geologist should also propose a mitigation method that will be suitable for the proposed use. Well-Substantiated and clear recommendations should be presented to show the remedial methods, procedures, and actions which should be applied on the mine site to mitigate the potentials of any risks during exploration and mining process. In case the removals are considered as the mitigation measure, then specific limits and depths or removal should be indicated and be based on the data obtained from engineering characteristics and boring logs of materials evaluated through lab testing (Hustrulid, 2012).

Limits and depths of over-excavation should concur with qualitative and quantitative data presented in the report. Every testing performed in the laboratory on the samples should include calculations and graphs. The engineering geologist should indicate the consultant geologist who coordinated the design of mitigation with project engineer, architect, foundation engineer, and structural engineer. The report submitted to the technical services division should indicate that the consultant soil geologist has visited the mine site and verified the supporting data (Committee, 2014).  

Conclusion

Australia is known as one of the leading nations in mining because of the transparency and openness of the mining investments and the legal framework. The coherent system provides the industry with certainty to the participants. It is very important to know the relationship certainty and transparency and hence positive impact is seen in the overall sector of mining. The prospecting and exploration strategies which have been discussed in this research paper that need to be undertaken in the acquisition of the mineral deposit include geological mapping, geophysical techniques, and geophysical methods. The engineering geologist provides the information concerning the type of testing that was performed on the region, the interval in which the samples were taken, and the type of samples that were used in conducting the assessment of the mine site to the technical services division.

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