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The science of mining is evolving and so are mining techniques . There ’ s been a lot of advances over the last 25 years that I ’ ve seen , such as airborne geophysics . Airborne geophysics is a fantastic and very cost-effective tool . Historically , airborne magnetics would have cost about $ 150 per line kilometre . Now you can get it for about $ 11 per line kilometre and it ’ s very powerful . It allows miners to look under cover , to see geology through cover sequences and big structures and combine that with ground gravity work – which has also come a long way . Drilling is getting cheaper too , but there ’ s room for that to grow and I ’ m sure it will do in the next five or 10 years . Drilling rates are comparable to what they were 15 years ago and miners are getting a bit more bang for their buck these days . Callum Baxter , Geologist , Greatland Gold

NOVEMBER 2018