A week ago I left home by car on my way to learn about mining in Nevada. The drive took twelve hours. Along the way I saw a large forest fire.
I got to the town of Eureka Nevada (home for the next month). The first thing I did was drive through town to a place I could get a decent look at a mine. I found it on Google earth while I was exploring the area a few days before I left. It is a relatively small mine in comparison with a lot of the ones out here but just the top part that I saw from the pull of in the highway seemed huge, then I met up with my mentor, Gary Edmondo. He is an Exploration Geologist that works for a junior gold mining company called Timberline Resources. His job is to gather all of the information and inform the company about what types of rock and minerals are under the ground. 
After settling in at the hotel we went to dinner where I got to here a little more specifics about what we would be doing. The next day I was immersed into the mining world. We spent the day looking at geological maps of the mine property, and then I got a good tour of the expansive property that I would be working at.
After our first day of getting ready, and for me getting used to the property and the environment we started our geological work the next day. In this last week I have taken lots of surface rock samples while on exploration hikes, helped with the first draft of geological maps in a new area of the property, taken the strike and dip of outcroppings, used a spectrometer on rocks to find out what type of underground liquids have altered the rock, logged samples of core, and watched both RC drilling and Core drilling.
All of this work is used to locate gold and other resources under the surface of the earth. Mine exploration is like a big puzzle; we use things we see on the surface to give us an idea of what is underneath. Once we have all of the info from the surface we can narrow in on areas that could be drilled for a much better understanding of the rocks. The puzzle slowly is solved and the pictures tell us where our resources are. If the exploration geologist comes up with a good recourse then the property is subject to be mined.
Noah- Oh the life of a field geologist- I miss my days (at Colorado College) spent in the field hammering at outcrops (and then the late nights spent working on maps and in the lab). Indeed, the Earth reveals its secrets to those interested and trained enough to listen, and it sounds like you’re rapidly building those skills. Thanks for sharing your stories so that I can again experience the thrill of geologic exploration vicariously through you.
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