Michael Allan McCrae reports that the legendary explorationist and geologist, Dave Lowell, has published a new book - Intrepid Explorer - The Autobiography of the World Best Mine Finder. He has a number of exploration rules that he follows - 1. Ore is rock which can mined at a profit. Low grade is sometimes mineable, and high grade is sometimes not. 2. Mines are found in the field, not the office 3. Mines are now almost always found by drilling holes, so if no part of the budget is spent on drilling there is almost no chance of success. (Pierina was the rare exception.) 4. Exploration is a cost/benefit business.
Expensive high-precision core drilling is often used when low-precision low-cost rotary drilling would suffice. In the Atacama Project we spent $3 million on wide-spaced rotary drill holes. If we had used core holes our budget would have run out when less that half the holes were drilled including those that found the Escondida and Zaldivar orebodies. 5. High-tech devices and geophysical surveys are very rarely of value in mine discovery. There should be an almost metaphysical communication between the rocks and the successful explorationist in which a study of the rocks guide the explorationist. 6. If he turns part of this job of geological mapping over to a high-tech gadget, he may look good to uniformed management, but he is less likely to find a mine. 7.
It is important to have a good understanding of the target the geologist is seeking, including understanding some mining engineering, metallurgy, mine finance, and mineral economics. He is not looking for a scientific curiosity. He is looking for a mass of rock which can be made into a mine. Lowell concludes that his mining engineering and mine production work has been very important to his exploration success. 8. Mineral exploration, like investing in new drugs, has a very low probability of success. Only one out of three hundred to fine hundred attractive targets become a mine.
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