1b; 2c; 3a; 4a; 5c; 6. Five – Mali, Malawi, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique; 7c; 8. Titanium; 9a; 10a.
2. The Gold Standard
3. Cinnabar
4. Aluminium
5. Barium
6. d.
7. a.
8. a.
9. Castlemaine
10. Mae West
1. If you are able to leave a scratch mark on a mineral with your fingernail, you can conclude that:
a. It is very hard
b. It is harder than 2 to 2½ on Moh’s scale
c It is a mineral softer than 2 to 2½ on Moh’s scale
d. It is talc
2. Which is the best source of magnesium?
a. Chicken
b. Peanut butter
c. Carrots
d. Potatoes
3. The ten most common minerals make up what percentage of the earth’s crust
a. 90%
b. 50%
c. 20%
d. 10%
4. The relative weight of a mineral sample is directly related to the mineral’s
a. Lustre
b. Cleavage
c. Density
d. Hardness
5. The most common magnetic mineral is
a. Hematite
b. Magnetite
c. Halite
d. Uranium
6. Many prospectors climbed up the Chilkoot Pass in search of gold. This pass is in…
a. Alaska
b. Nevada
c. Colorado
d. California
7. What is the method of washing small amounts of dirt and gravel to look for gold called? Panning
8. He founded the British South Africa Company and made an enormous fortune in diamond mining. What was his name?
a. Cecil Rhodes
b. Ernest Oppenheimer
c. Alfred Beit
9. What mining technique involves removing all of the overburden to expose the desired mineral body? Strip Mining
10. What kind of dimension stone is extracted from quarries along the Merensky horizon in South Africa
a. Marble
b. Slate
c. Granite
1. The southern continents Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia and Peninsular India at one time was one landmass called:
a. Monomotapa
b. Gondwana
c. Utopia
2. Porphyry is associated with the colour:
a. Blue
b. Red
c. Purple
3. Where would you look for Mapungubwe?
a. Limpopo Province
b. North West Province
c. Botswana
4. A sextant is:
a. An instrument used in measuring altitudes of celestial bodies
b. An instrument measuring the movements of plates in the lithosphere
c. An instrument used in measuring the speed of satellites
5. The vertical support of a winding staircase:
a. A column
b. A strut
c. A newel
6. The solution of gold in mercury:
a. Concentrate
b. Amalgam
c. Aurifer
7. Gangue
a. Barren rock accompanying an orebody
b. Residue of gold processing
c. Coarse-grained metamorphic rock
8. Grey to white metallic element extracted from wolframite:
a. Tungsten
b. Niobium
c. Arsenic
9. Removal of substances in solution or in suspension from upper and middle layers of soil by water percolating downward or horizontally
a. Flotation
b. Eluviation
c. Filtration
10. An order of mammals that includes man, apes and monkeys are called:
a. Primates
b. Vertebrates
c. Herbivores
Answers to October's Newsletter Quiz
1. Nyasaland was the former name of :
- Malawi
- Kenya
- Tanzania
2 .The most popular dog in the U.K.
- German Shepherd
- Labrador
- Corgi
3. Where is Timbuctu ?
- Shri Lanka
- Mali
- Ghana
4. 32.1507 oz troy equals:
- a..1 pound
- 1 000 drachm
- l kilogramme.
5. TNT is the abbreviation of :
- Nitroglycerine
- Trinitrotoluene
- Trinitrobenzine
6. 1dwt equals 1.552
- a.Grammes
- b.Grains
- c..Ounces
7. Prospector credited with the discovery of the Witwatersrand Goldfield:
- Henry Struben
- J.B. Taylor
- George Harrison
8. In which country would you find the only deposit of a vivid blue-purple exquisite gem crystal identified as a variety of the mineral zoisite?
- Tanzania
- Malawi
- Sudan
9. What is MQA an abbreviation of?
- Mineral Quality Assurance
- Mines Qualifications Authority
- Metal Quantity Audit
10. The ‘Cousin Jacks’ were:
- Cornishmen
- Welshmen
- Irishmen
Answers to our September newsletter quiz
- Yes, in Kern County, California USA. Johannesburg, California, a gold mining town, founded in 1886, was named by miners who had previously worked on the Witwatersrand Gold Fields in South Africa.
- Yes, Timbuctu, a town in Mali was called The City of Gold. Between the 5th and 13 centuries, the empire of Mali flourished because of its trade in gold.
- Karat indicates the proportion of solid gold in an alloy based on a total of 24 parts. Carat is the unit of weight used for precious stones.
- 4. 3 500.
- It is believed that Cornish miners used to address each other by the old greeting of ’cousin’ and Jack was the most popular Christian name in Cornwall. Early Cornish miners on the Witwatersrand often enquired about job opportunities for their ‘Cousin Jack’ back home.
- It is the deliberate or avoidable destruction of the natural environment as by pollutants.
- 1 000 000
- Cordite
- A fault
- The heart. As it pumps 4.5 litres of blood per minute through the circulatory system, it works twice as hard as the leg muscles of a sprinter or the arm muscles of a boxing champion.