{"id":10113,"date":"2017-02-07T13:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T13:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\/mining\/?p=10113"},"modified":"2026-01-13T16:25:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:25:43","slug":"trees-termites-and-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/mining\/trees-termites-and-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Trees, Termites, and \u2026Gold?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"acaciaTo find gold, miners may look for various elements associated with gold known as pathfinder elements<\/a> (silver, copper, zinc, nickel, mercury, arsenic and barium).  It’s much easier to find the pathfinder elements than it is to find gold, and geochemical mapping<\/a> the distribution of these elements help focus the search area to determine if gold is nearby. <\/p>\n

Now Australian researchers have published a study in the journal Geology<\/em><\/a> suggesting that trees, and termites, may be new gold “pathfinders”. According to Mining.com<\/a>, the team analyzed hundreds of samples of sediments, soil and acacia leaves from a gold mine near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Based on the gold content in the samples, the researchers concluded that the aspect and condition of tree leaves and soil, as well as the presence of termites, should be considered key indicators of the presence of gold deposits in a certain area. Canadian mining exploration<\/a> firm Angkor Gold supports the Australian team’s findings. The company has identified concentrations of gold and base metals such as copper and molybdenum in samples collected from more than 110,000 termite mounds in Cambodia.<\/p>\n

This could be good news considering how costly and difficult traditional gold mining is. Given the market volatility of the past five years, companies mining for precious metals face continuing pressure to cut costs and quickly identify the most economically viable resources. Some of the issues they face are:<\/p>\n