Nevada Exploration Groundwater Chemistry Exploration Program for Gold

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Gold-Silver Exploration & Mining Projects

Date posted: 01/25/16

In 2004, Nevada Exploration (NGE) began a reconnaissance groundwater chemistry exploration program across Nevada to identify new gold exploration targets. Because there were no established procedures for collecting and analyzing groundwater samples for mineral exploration, nor existing software for spatial groundwater chemistry data collection and analysis, NGE developed new sampling procedures and custom software. NGE has now collected more than 3,000 samples from springs, wells, windmills, and other available sources of groundwater. To prioritize sampling in areas of geologic interest, NGE’s field teams use an extensive exploration database interest. NGE uses a standardized sampling protocol to collect samples, ultra-low detection mass-spectrometry to analyze the samples, and adheres to rigorous Quality Assurance and Quality Control procedures to monitor data quality. The resulting proprietary dataset is the product of the most accurate and comprehensive survey of Nevada groundwater ever completed. NGE has evaluated the reconnaissance dataset to look for new exploration targets with elevated gold and trace metal groundwater chemistry suggestive of nearby gold mineralization. Focusing on the top 5% of all gold in groundwater values (95th Percentile), and on areas with high sample density, NGE successfully identified 33 targets with groundwater chemistry similar to that at known gold deposits. This approach was also undertaken in Australia in a study that includes 928 samples from four different mining districts in central Victoria Province and provides the Australian industry the baseline context to begin using groundwater chemistry to find new deposits in Australia. The combined dataset clearly shows that the groundwater around Nevada, etc. gold mines contain high concentrations of the indicator elements that were important for the associated discoveries: antimony, arsenic, copper, lead, zinc, etc., and these are used as pathfinder tools in exploration.