4.5.8. Pathfinder Minerals

Green epidote and Fe-oxides are common minerals in many rock types and deposits and, therefore, are typically found in much higher abundance in till than traditional indicator minerals (S.A. Averill, Pers. Comm), thus their abundance are not routinely determined in the >250 μm fraction. MLA is ideally suited to quantifying their abundances as XBSE scans count every mineral present on a sample surface. Once regional background abundance values are established, anomalous elevated abundances, similar to those observed for epidote and Fe-oxide in our study, can be recognized. Epiote and Fe-oxide minerals are common and the presence in till would not be of note on their own; however, coincident increases in their abundance over the same spatial area highlight a potential area of interest for follow-up mineral exploration, especially when combined with the presence of sulfide minerals. The relationship between these minerals and traditional ore indicator minerals is similar to that of "pathfinder elements" and "indicator elements" in regional geochemical exploration and underscores the potential for automated mineralogy to be a powerful tool in an exploration context.
