A direct means of indicating the presence of concealed mineralization would be the ultimate in exploration. In many ways the.induced-polarization (IP) technique comes close to achieving this goal. it has been remarkably successful in locating concealed bodies containing even small percentages of metallic-luster minerals.
Induced polarization as a subject has not been presented to any great
extent in college courses, and many exploration men have therefore not had the benefit of training in this technique. Because of the rapidgrowthin this field, there is a serious lag in the published literatU:r/, even though use of the method is becoming rather widespread. Not much is available on IP in an intermediate-level treatment and some of the basic research data are still in confidential company files.. Hopefully this book will help fill the information gap that is growing in this expanding field.
Because of its costs, IP surveying can be a major expense item in a mineral exploration budget. It therefore behooves persons in exploration to have more than a casual acquaintanceship with aspects of'the technique.
Unlike most other geophysical exploration methods, induced polarization is usually not useful for anything but prospecting for metallic-luster minerals. Other uses may develop in good time, for example, in petroleum exploration well logging, but at the present the goal of most IP surveys is to discover or to delineate an economic mineral deposit.
Although more than 90% of the geophysically interpreted, drill-tested IP anomalies seem to be explained by the presence of metallic-luster minerals, such as sulfides, the sulfide minerals themselves may not be even indirectly related to ore mineralization. Much subore grade pyrite has been found with IP surveys. Other exploration methods and especially geological reasoning must be used to sort out the noneconomic IP sources.
This volume is written for geologists, engineers, and anyone who is interested in technical aspects of mineral exploration. It is expected that the reader's background will include some familiarity with undergraduate college-level physics, mathematics, and chemistry.

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