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| BUGS GO SPELUNKING |
| Some of the world's largest and most spectacular caves were created by the tiniest builders imaginable, according to a team of US geologists. |
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| BUGS GROW GOLD THAT LOOKS LIKE CORAL |
| Microbes that grow gold grains looking like a coral reef could open up new possibilities for mineral prospecting, according to an Australian researcher. |
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| HIMALAYAS COULD HARBOUR MORE SULFIDE ORES |
| The Himalayan mountains may be a better place than the ocean floor to look for rich sulfide ores, according to Australian and Spanish research. |
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| METEORITE IMPACT CREATES NEW MINERAL |
| A new mineral made by a meteorite smashing into the Earth has been found by Chinese researchers. |
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| RUTGERS EXPLORER DESCRIBES SEA FLOOR HOT SPRINGS AS TEEMING WITH VALUABLE MINERALS AND MICROBES |
| With only about 5 percent of the sea floor explored in detail, a picture is emerging of a vast system of natural undersea dynamos, fueled by hot springs, that produce not only valuable mineral deposits, but habitats for unique, heat-loving organisms that can provide materials for products ranging from detergents to pharmaceuticals. |
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| MELTING CRUST MAKES RICH MINERAL DEPOSITS: GEOLOGIST |
| A University of Toronto study suggests why giant gold and copper deposits are found at some volcanoes but not others, a finding that could point prospectors to large deposits of these and other valuable metals. |
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| SCIENTISTS USE ALFALFA PLANTS TO HARVEST NANOPARTICLES OF GOLD |
| Ordinary alfalfa plants are being used as miniature gold factories that one day could provide the nanotechnology industry with a continuous harvest of gold nanoparticles. |
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| BACTERIA POINT THE WAY TO GOLD DEPOSITS |
| Can bacteria help find gold? A pilot survey of 11 soil profiles across gold mining regions in the Peoples Republic of China indicates that elevated spore counts of Bacillus cereus, a common soil bacterium, were detected in areas adjacent to underlying gold deposits. |
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| CLUES TO EARLY HISTORY OF SOLAR SYSTEM'S OLDEST DIAMONDS |
| Simulating implantation of noble gases into terrestrial diamond grains, scientists from the Karpov Institute for Physical Chemistry (Moscow, Russia) and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Mainz, Germany) infer a sequence of events in the early life of presolar diamonds in meteorites, the most common form of stardust available for laboratory study (Nature, August 9, 2001). |
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| 'LOST CITY' FOUND |
| Massive submarine mineral deposits, forming chimneys up to 60 metres high, are part of a new type of hydrothermal vent field known as the "Lost City" in the North Atlantic Ocean. |
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| ENERGY CRISIS ACCELERATED, NOT HELPED, BY INCREASED OIL PRODUCTION |
| Researchers predict only 30-50 years at most before reserves begin to decline sharply. Increasing oil production will hasten the day when demand for oil outstrips supply and will make an inevitable oil crisis far more unmanageable, researchers from the University of Rochester say. |
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| VENUS HOLDS CLUES TO FINDING EARTH'S PLATINUM AND DIAMONDS |
| Venus is key to understanding what the early Earth was like during the late Archaean and early Proterozoic when precious resources were formed. While modern Venus is in a quiet state most of the time, is does enter into short periods of intense volcanic activity where the old surface of Venus is destroyed and a new one is created. In its early history when life evolved, Earth worked in a similar way to modern Venus. |
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