Mining Engineering
Exploration and Geology
Exploration Methods for Ore Minerals: Fundamentals
How an exploration programme narrows a region to a target, and a target to a drill hole.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Foundation
- Fee from
- On enquiry
Overview
Exploration is a sequence of filters, each more expensive than the last, and the skill is knowing when to stop. This week covers that sequence: regional targeting from geological reasoning, geochemical and geophysical surveys, how each dataset is interpreted and where each misleads, and the drilling that eventually tests a target. It closes on the decision discipline of killing a project early, which saves more money than any single technique.
Who should attend
Exploration geologists and technicians, project geologists and managers, and investors or analysts assessing exploration programmes.
What you will be able to do
- Build a targeting rationale from deposit model and regional geology.
- Design geochemical sampling suited to the terrain.
- Select geophysical methods matched to the target's properties.
- Integrate datasets without forcing agreement between them.
- Plan drilling that tests the target rather than confirms the hope.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, live online, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
Targeting
- Deposit models, and their proper use
- Regional datasets and prospectivity
- Ground selection and tenure
Day 2
Geochemistry
- Soil, stream sediment and rock chip sampling
- Pathfinder elements
- Analysis, detection limits and quality control
Day 3
Geophysics
- Magnetics, gravity, electrical and electromagnetic methods
- Matching a method to a physical property contrast
- Depth, resolution and ambiguity
Day 4
Integration
- Layering datasets honestly
- Ranking targets
- Confirmation bias, and how a programme acquires it
Day 5
Testing
- Drill method selection
- Hole placement and orientation
- Deciding to continue, and deciding to stop
What you leave with
- A targeting rationale for a real area.
- A survey design with sample spacing and methods justified.
- A drill programme with stated success and failure criteria.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Cairo, Egypt | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Port Louis, Mauritius | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Gaborone, Botswana | Classroom | R15,000 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Lagos, Nigeria | Classroom | US$1,500 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended. Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.