Chapter 2: Geochemical Exploration Check Access

The focal objective of Geochemical Exploration (GE) is to search for mineral resources, and delineate ore bodies in collaboration with geophysical surveys and drilling activities in an area. GE comprises mainly (i) collection of geological samples from the area with favourable geological setting, (ii) analytical database generationed on samples for whole rock, complete water analysis, mineral analysis and path finder trace elements with a wide dispersion forming larger, more easily accessed targets by the sampling strategy (including transition, radioactive, rare earth and platinum group elements) and (iii) statistical treatment of data to determine anomalies. The samples collected include rocks, soils, stream and lake sediments, hydro geochemical samples (natural waters such as surface water and ground water), vegetation from geobotanical surveys for identifying an indicator plant for the element of interest and air. Rock samples are basically collected for concealed mineralization while altered rocks are collected for trace element geochemical studies. Extremely porous or fractured rocks usually reveal broader dispersion halos forming an anomalous zone of a path finder. Interpretation of a result mainly depends on the quality of the samples, i.e., the extent it represents the original sample.