Minerals are little bits of rock that someone feels are important. If no one feels they are important than they remain little bits of rock and get carried around in the pockets of little children who are non-descriminating and think everything - including dads - is important. That, by the way, is why it is cool to be a dad – for a couple of years at least. It also depends on who thinks the little bits of rock are important. If women in general think they are important then they will fetch higher prices. How else can one explain diamonds? 

There are many types of minerals and a great deal of ink has been spent describing their molecular and crystalline structures; defining their chemical and physical properties and enumerating the neat things that can be done with them. Remember playing with liquid mercury and trying to dissolve your mother’s wedding ring? This is the sort of thing I am talking about. It is important to know that there are many different types of minerals that were formed in different ways as the earth passed through its explosive teen years. 

Most minerals have some distinct properties that can be used to track them down. Some minerals cause magnets to do strange things, others will conduct electricity; some will stand out by their colour, others will cause certain types of vegetation to grow; some are heavy and will sink in a bed of other bits of rock and others will glow under phosphorescent light. Many minerals will dissolve in water especially if it is a bit acidic and so testing water samples can lead to where the minerals came from. If you are going to look for minerals, then, it is important to understand all these distinctions and have a bit of Sherlock Holmes in your personality. There are lots of neat stories of remarkable detective work that has resulted in the discovery of important mineral bodies. 

 Of course there are other ways to make money in the mining industry. For example, someone might say that they have found huge amounts of “stuff” (usually gold) and, therefore, you and your buddies should pay a lot of money for pieces of paper proving that you have been given a “piece of the action”. The phrase “a piece of the action” is a highly technical mining term indicating that you have may have been scammed by someone who says they have found huge amounts of stuff. Be warned!

Minerals, in and of themselves, are rarely of any significant value. But they do contain elements of value. Things like copper, iron, gold, silver, nickel, tungsten, zinc, lead, aluminum, wood (no, not wood) - but you get the picture. These elements are usually chemically bound to other elements in the mineral and the trick is to smash it, screen it, burn it and otherwise molest the mineral until the elements give up their embrace and separate into their parts. Other minerals can be very valuable without much processing. Think of the lowly diamond – a bunch of black coal squeezed until all its juices have left and a clear, very hard little rock is left. A lot of gemstones are like this. Many of them are just bits of quartz with pretty colours and wonderfully precise crystal structures. The author has often paid top dollar for these lovely bits of rock thinking their crystal structures are wonderfully precise when in fact they are about as well formed as his bottom teeth. The trick is to never tell the object of your affection that the pretty rock she has received has more value as goldfish gravel than as a jewel on her ring. Mind you getting caught out at this subterfuge is hugely embarrassing.

Gemstones come under the general heading of Industrial Minerals and this is a category of little bits of rock that is not well understood by any but those who work with them. These folks don’t want to say too much because they are on to a fascinating and highly profitable thing that can only be wrecked if too many of the bearded ones or dumb engineers catch on. Many of the people who populate the world of industrial minerals are a) not university trained and b) wealthier than Solomon. There may be a lesson in here but I was university trained and am afraid to touch the obvious. Industrial minerals include such esoteric substances as sand and gravel, coal, clay, talc, rutile, zircon, wollastonite, asbestos, magnetite, marble, phosphate and stuff like that. It’s often pretty ‘meat and potatoes’ stuff but can be obscenely profitable. The downside to industrial minerals is the intense marketing that is often required to ensure profits. There are no industrial minerals commodity exchanges in London or elsewhere (as with other elements as described above) so industrial minerals companies have to hire people dressed in white shoes and paisley sports coats to travel around and aggressively sell the product. Another downside to industrial minerals can be the location of the deposits. Many of them are close to cities and towns and are frequented by environmentalists who insist on driving past the quarry with their mountain bikes firmly fixed to the top of their sports utility vehicles. Or pity the poor Australian operator who must politely ask the nubile and nearly naked starlet to move her blanket further down the beach so he can continue to feed sand into the gaping maw of his magnetic separator to produce some rutile and zircon. Did I say this was a downside?

We have discussed the definition of rocks and minerals and elements. None of these things has any real value unless they are found in quantities that can be commercially exploited and that is what exploration is all about. Now that we have discussed minerals it is time to identify the first basic step to finding them - mapping the world.