What is a pathfinder element?

In geochemical exploration, a relatively mobile element or gas that occurs in close association with an element or commodity being sought, but can be more easily found because it forms a broader halo or can be detected more readily by analytical methods.

What is the pathfinder element of gold?

Answer. Explanation: Examples of pathfinder minerals that are geochemical indicators for gold include: silver, copper, lead, zinc, cobalt, nickel, arsenic, antimony, tellurium, selenium and mercury.

What is an indicator mineral?

Indicator minerals are mineral species that, when appearing as transported grains in clastic sediments, indicate the presence in bedrock of a specific type of mineralization, hydrothermal alteration or lithology.

What is meant by indicator and pathfinder elements in exploration geochemistry?

term ‘indicator element’ is used here to refer to an element that is an economically valuable component of the ore being sought and which may be used to detect an orebody and the term ‘pathfinder element’ is used here to refer to non-ore elements associated with the orebody that may be used to detect the orebody ( Rose …

What are the Earth’s geochemical cycles?

1 The Geochemical Cycle. The geochemical cycle comprises the gains and losses of nutrients to the ecosystem by processes such as weathering and leaching. Geochemical processes are usually slow relative to the growth of trees. Nutrients are added to the soil by the weathering of parent materials, and in rainfall.

Is the element Sb a metal?

antimony (Sb), a metallic element belonging to the nitrogen group (Group 15 [Va] of the periodic table).

What are the minerals that indicate the presence of gold?

Geochemistry Examples of pathfinder minerals that are geochemical indicators for gold include: silver, copper, lead, zinc, cobalt, nickel, arsenic, antimony, tellurium, selenium and mercury.

What is an indicator in geology?

sediments. INTRODUCTION. Indicator minerals are mineral species that indicate the presence of a specific mineral deposit, alteration or rock lithology. Ideal indicator minerals are found in few if any rocks other than the host deposit or lithology.

What are the indicator minerals for diamonds?

Indicator minerals for diamond include, in order of decreasing significance: garnet, chromite, ilmenite, clinopyroxene, olivine, and zircon. But the order of persistence in streams is zircon, ilmenite, chromite, garnet, chromian diopside, and olivine. Diamond itself is obviously a most important indicator.

What are geochemical anomalies?

Definition: Area where geochemical properties (e.g. single or multiple element concentrations or isotope ratios) differ from surrounding areas and which may be the result of mineralisation.

What are the 4 biogeochemical cycles?

Biogeochemical cycles important to living organisms include the water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur cycles.

How many essential elements are there in a geochemical cycles?

This primary geochemical differentiation of the Earth can be interpreted in terms of the system iron–magnesium–silicon–oxygen–sulfur, because these five elements make up about 95 percent of the Earth.