The mineralogy of regolith material for which whole rock geochemistry
has already been done can be used to better understand/rank the
significance of geochemical anomalies. Case studies show that the
secondary minerals of the regolith environment have quite different
capacities to incorporate pathfinder and target elements, eg hematite
appears to be a better host to Pb than goethite and Pb rich alunite-jarosite
minerals are a better Ag host than mimetite. Thus correlations between
elements in regolith material may be strongly affected by mineralogy. Understanding of the significance of a geochemical anomaly is
frequently enhanced by knowledge of the weathering susceptibility of
different minerals. For example, when a mineralogical sequence which
does not correspond to the expected order is found (eg feldspar overlying
weathered material without feldspars) it is possible that transported
material is present in the profile. Such mineralogical information is
particularly relevant as exploration continues into areas of thick regolith.