Noah Perkovich Week Four: Mine Exploration Geology

This fourth and final week of my internship has been even more exciting than all its precursors.  I am becoming very familiar with the terms, vocabulary, and ideas of these bright geologists I am working with. With every bit of experience  I get I feel like I always am growing my understanding of the field I am working in and more importantly trends and behaviors of the earth.

We have finished with our large lines of soil samples that needed to be taken and now the bags of dirt will go to a ultra-low grade gold assay lab in Vancouver to be tested. Sadly I will not be around here when the results get back and I can get to see the picture put together of the different gold grades on the GIS programs but, Gary will send me a little info about how the samples did at the lab just to have an idea of the property’s future. the results of  the rock and soil sample I took with them will determine if there will be any further exploration in the area.

All of the rock samples that I took will be sent to a regular assay in Elko NV. Also I will be excited to hear of the results from my findings. Along with soil and rock samples being done in the area we have gotten a rough drawn map of the structures in the area. It was a lot of sitting in the dirt with Gary trying to put the puzzles together given to us by the small clues on the surface.

Gary and Lucia were so kind enough to arrange mine tours for us at two of the largest underground mines on the Carlin Trend of Nevada. Oh yeah, the Carlin Trend is something only found here and in a small place in China. It is a type of deposit that has no visible gold, though the gold can be relatively high grade it is all in submicroscopic particles. Gold in every other area of the world is visible under microscope or better. This makes exploration that much more difficult because we use lots of clues instead of just looking for gold.

Back to the fact I go to go 2,000 feet below the surface of the earth by a small steel elevator that travels down the shaft of the mine. I know jealousy runs high through the minds of my reader. It should. Underground is a very interesting, cool, unique experience that I am very thankful to have gotten during this internship.

So tomorrow early in the morning I sadly have to say goodbye to my amazingly intelligent mentor Gary and make the long haul back home. I feel like I have learned more within this last month of working with Gary and Lucia than I have in anything I can think of.