I have always thought about this. How did our ancestors find salt and metal? Did someone just choose a spot to dig and go at it?
In: Planetary Science
By using the Mk1 eyeball, knowledge, experience and trial and error.
Take for example ancient Egypt. Egyptian prospectors were highly educated officials of the pharaoh. Expert mapmakers, long apprenticeships with the prospectors that came before them and a lifetime of wandering the Egyptian desert.
They knew which geological features indicated exposed rock, they knew what minerals contained valuable metals&stones (like copper, lead, gold, silver and gems), they knew which other metals and minerals were often found in association with the metals they wanted. Lead often formed alloys with silver, so if you found lead-bearing ores you might find silver-bearing ores by following the vein. If you found quartz there was a decent chance that the vein contained copper and gold as well.
And on top of that. Lots and lots of effort. 19th century prospectors searching the districts where Egyptians had once searched for metals noted that there wasn’t a single vein of Quartz that didn’t bear the mark of earlier and ancient prospecting.
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