re: silver exploration technology
Geochemistry has been around for many years in metalliferous exploration - gold, silver, base metals. It is still probably one of the most widely used exploration methods and is the first step taken in most situations before any drilling is done and still accounts for many new discoveries.
Essentially involves taking soil samples on a grid pattern or from streams/river beds then seeing whether an anomoly stands out. Usually only the key elements are assayed for. For some metals there are elements that act as indicators for other metals. In Macmins case they have worked out that Potassium(???) is a good indicator for their silver mineralisation.
Nowadays a lot of exploration is done where there is significant overlying cover so geochem methods are getting more and more fine tuned.
I am not a geo so you are getting a laymans version here. I stand to be corrected anywhere someone thinks fit!
