Mining At Altitude in South America
Valuable mineral resources are often found in locations that are truly difficult to access, and a problem that only gets worse when heavy machinery and large numbers of workers are factored into the...
View ArticleFrom Exploration to Opening a Mine
A sizeable amount of time and money go into a property from the exploration process to the ideal outcome of a mine site. This summary article will serve as a good starting point to anyone interested in...
View ArticleLife Cycle of a Mineral Deposit – Stock Price Implications
A key concept for potential investors to understand is the life cycle of a mineral deposit and it’s potential relationship to stock price. Knowing the potential risk and the project value (real or...
View ArticleUndersea Mining – Challenges and Potential
Although 70% of the world is covered with water, with the exception of oil and gas, under sea mineral exploration is still uncommon. However, as land-based resources become depleted and more expensive...
View ArticleMining Active Volcanoes (Surprisingly, we can and do!)
The role that volcanoes have in creating land is obvious to anyone who has seen the spectacular eruptions in Iceland or Hawaii. In 1943, Paricutin was a patch of barren soil in a Mexican farmer’s...
View ArticleUnderground Mining Techniques and Risks
Undergrounds mining is still, even after hundreds of years of safety improvements, a dangerous and expensive business. It’s wise for an investor to understand both the basic workings for an underground...
View ArticleStarting A Mine: Pre-Feasibility and Feasibility Studies
While the basic concept of mining may be familiar to most people, the total process from exploration target to profitable mine is complex and involved. There are a wide range of natural resource types...
View ArticleA Brief Look at Geological and Technical Risk Analysis in Mine Planning
Having a basic understanding of the orebody modeling and the mine optimization methods used can help investors determine how much effort a company places into the quantification of risk to manage their...
View ArticleHow Important is a Social Licence to Operate?
Community engagement is no longer optional for junior explorers. Earning your social licence to operate is as important as any geophysical survey, geochemical sampling program or drill campaign to...
View ArticleAsteroid Mining: Not as Crazy as it Sounds
At first glance it sounds ridiculous. Why would anyone consider mining in space when even the largest Earth-based mining operations seem to have trouble managing costs? After all, mid-grade and...
View ArticleGreat Deposits – Grasberg Part 3 – Mining and Engineering
In our first two articles we discussed the history and geology of the Grasberg Mine and it is now time to come back to what makes Grasberg so important: The Mine. The massive size of the deposit, the...
View ArticleMining Methods: Block Caving
What is Block Caving? Block (gravity) caving is a bulk underground mining method, which allows large low-grade deposits to be mined underground. This method involves undermining the orebody to make it...
View ArticleWhat is cut-off grade? An introduction to overlooked yet critical concept in...
A company covered by this site in the past has released a new resource. It was: 281,059 AuEq oz in the indicated category (1.21 Million tonnes (“Mt”) grading 7.23g/t AuEq at 3.5g/t AuEq cut-off)...
View ArticleThe Nugget Effect. What is it, and how to recognize it.
One of the first things to recognize in the mining industry, is that all that glitters may not be gold. I’m not talking about the time the CEO of a junior exploration company picked up drill core...
View ArticleCerro Rico – The greatest of the great.
In this column on great deposits, I have discussed those that were rich, big, changed destinies, broke governments and accumulated a wealth of stories. However, only one has definitively changed the...
View ArticleMinerals, Mining and the Green Revolution
While we still remain reliant on fossil fuels, there is tremendous momentum towards renewable energy in many countries. Increasingly, our homes and businesses are powered by solar panels and wind...
View ArticleCan NASA Help Solve Mining’s Productivity Problem?
The mining industry has a productivity problem. Coming into the last big commodity cycle and for most of the years since, mining productivity has continued to decline. Miners grew too fast during good...
View ArticleUndersea Mining – Challenges and Potential
Although 70% of the world is covered with water, with the exception of oil and gas, under sea mineral exploration is still uncommon. However, as land-based resources become depleted and more expensive...
View ArticleMining Active Volcanoes (Surprisingly, we can and do!)
The role that volcanoes have in creating land is obvious to anyone who has seen the spectacular eruptions in Iceland or Hawaii. In 1943, Paricutin was a patch of barren soil in a Mexican farmer’s...
View ArticleUnderground Mining Techniques and Risks
Undergrounds mining is still, even after hundreds of years of safety improvements, a dangerous and expensive business. It’s wise for an investor to understand both the basic workings for an underground...
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