termites

Research undertaken at Tanami Gold's Coyote Mine in the Tanami Desert in Western Australia and at the Newmont Asia Pacific-owned Titania Prospect in the Northern Territory found that termite mounds provided important geological information to mining companies without the expensive drilling.

"Termites are nature’s little drillers," researcher and University of Adelaide geoscientist Anna Petts said.


"They travel up to 30 metres below the Earth’s surface in search of water and also in search of soil from which they build their nests.

"The difficulty in reaching deep-lying bedrock in some areas of Australia can make it very challenging to explore for minerals that are far below ground level, and in these cases mining companies usually have to undertake expensive preliminary drilling to determine whether precious commodities such as gold and diamonds are even there.

"Termites, however, conveniently bring subterranean soil samples to ground level to construct or fix their mounds. So by simply taking a sample of a termite mound, geologists can gain a good idea as to what minerals and metals can be found in the ground beneath it — making it a much cheaper way to undertake preliminary soil testing for minerals exploration.


"More intensive testing can then be undertaken if a site looks promising."

She said the approach had already proved successful in Africa, where local villagers pan the soil from termite mounds to extract gold nuggets up to 1cm in diameter and in some cases the sampling of termite mounds have resulted in the discovery of substantial diamond mines.