I received my education at two universities which were formed with a heavy mining emphasis: Nevada-Reno with Mackay School of Mines and the Colorado School of Mines. I had a lot of exposure to mining and many friends involved in one aspect or another in the mining industry. This fit quite well with my hobby of exploring old mining sites and also fit well with my interest in “earth” instrumentation. This interest eventually led to a degree in geophysics.
Although much of my work has been based on air or space based instruments, I’ve done some ground-stomping as well. A bit of trodding around Nevada “prospecting” for silver and gold deposits with a professional geologist, a bit of working for a few mining companies, and – lo and behold – I became an MSHA-certified underground miner … at which my true mining friends had a good chuckle.
There is gold in them thar hills …
So – that said, one of my projects involved a means of using dynamic magnetic fields without coils to detect subsurface conductivity zones … which are often good indicators of metallic ores.