Product Description

This new, up dated edition of Introduction to Mineral Exploration provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of mineral exploration.

• Covers not only the nature of mineral exploration but also considers other factors essential to successful exploration, from target evaluation to feasibility studies for extraction and production.
  
• Includes six detailed case studies, selected for the range of different problems and considerations they present to the mineral explorationist.
  
• Features new chapters on handling mineral exploration data and a new case study on the exploration for diamonds.
  
• Essential reading for upper level undergraduates studying ore geology, mineral exploration, mining geology, coal exploration, and industrial minerals, as well as professional geologists.

Artwork from the book is available to instructors online at www.blackwellpublishing.com/moon.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #469449 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 481 pages

Review
“A very competent overview of the process of exploration and no other book does it better. I would recommend this book enthusiastically to my students.”
Economic Geology

From the Back Cover
This new, updated edition of Introduction to Mineral Exploration provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of mineral exploration.

Successful mineral exploration requires excellence in geology as well as integration with a range of other scientific, engineering, and financial techniques. This book covers not only the nature of mineral exploration but also considers other factors essential to successful exploration, from target evaluation to feasibility studies for extraction and production. Six detailed case studies, selected for the range of different problems and considerations they present to the mineral explorationist, are also included.

This second edition is updated to include new chapters on handling mineral exploration data and a new case study on the exploration for diamonds.

Introduction to Mineral Exploration is essential reading for upper level undergraduates studying ore geology, mineral exploration, mining geology, coal exploration, and industrial minerals, as well as professional geologists.

About the Author
Charles J. Moon is currently Senior Lecturer in Mineral Exploration at the University of Leicester, England. He has over 30 years’ experience in using and developing mineral exploration techniques on six continents, particularly in the fields of exploration geochemistry and GIS.

Michael K.G. Whateley is currently Principal Consultant-Manager with Rio Tinto Technical Services in Bristol, England, where he manages strategic planning of projects and conducts project reviews for investment decisions on coal, base, and precious metal deposits. He has over 35 years’ geological and management experience, including 12 years in tertiary education.

Anthony M. Evans was formerly Senior Lecturer at the University of Leicester and editor of a number of successful texts on mineral deposits.

Customer Reviews

good update of previous books
This book makes good use of real case studies over a variety of commodities.I found it valuable as a graduate geologist and I believe it would be for undergraduates too.As with all multi author books ,some chapters are better written than others.The information on data and software does needs enlarging,to be really helpful -and the figures in this particular chapter would be much more valuable if they were in colour. Otherwise a good introductory text.

An Excellent Overview of Exploration Techniques, Primarily for Metals
This anthology begins with deskwork analysis of geologic maps and other information. From there, there are chapters on prefeasibility studies, remote sensing, geophysical methods, drilling programs, exploration geochemistry, etc. A series of chapters discuss case histories of exploration.

Financing is discussed, and a variety of technical information is presented. There is a glossary of common abbreviations, and illustrations on the use of statistics, as in the construction of borehole grids. There is also a helpful table of atypical colors that characterize many metallic compounds seen in outcrop (p. 80).

In evaluating different exploration techniques, John Milsom comments: "Geophysical interpretations are notoriously ambiguous but the gravity method does provide, at least in theory, a unique and unambiguous answer to one exploration question. If an anomaly is fully defined over the ground surface, the total gravitational flux it represents is proportional to the total excess mass of the source body." (pp. 134-135)

Very little attention is paid to the rare earth elements, considering their importance in recent years. However, there is data on the use of lanthanum as a tracer for geochemical exploration (p. 158), and cost-effective methods of analyzing REEs at background levels in geologic samples (p. 161).