NOTES
CATEGORY LABELS
Region	Region assigned based upon site location.  Regions denoted as follows:
Africa – Countries on the African continent.
Asia – Countries on the Asian continent, excluding Central Eurasia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Southeast Asia.
Australia – All Provinces of Australia.
Canada – All Provinces of Canada.
Commonwealth of Independent States – Countries of the former Soviet Union, excluding the Balkan states.
Europe – Countries of Eastern Europe, including the Balkan states, and Western Europe, including Iceland and the United Kingdom.
Latin America – Countries in the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and South America.
Middle East – Countries on the Arabian Peninsula and surrounding countries, including Turkey.
Pacific Region – Countries on the Pacific Rim, excluding Australia, but including countries of Southeast Asia.
United States – The 50 U.S. States and Puerto Rico.
Country	Country in which site is located.  For Australia, Canada, or the United States, the Province or State of site location.
Top 100	Site was considered significant enough to appear in Table 2 of Mining Engineering summary article.
Site	Names associated with the activity, as reported by the source.  In the case where multiple names are given, primary name reported first.  A name in parenthesis indicates an alternate name for the same site.
Company	Shortened name of company reporting the data, usually the company conducting the exploration or an affiliated company by joint venture agreement.
Commodity(ies)	Mineral commodity or commodities targeted for exploration, express by elemental symbol or chemical formula.  Order of commodities as stated by source of information and does not necessarily represent order of importance by quantity or value.
Phase	Exploration phase, denoted: Developing – Approved for development or construction ongoing; Exploration – Active exploration; Feasibility – Feasibility work ongoing or completed; Producer – Exploration at producing site.
Type	Indicator of the relationship to previous exploration activity in the area, denoted: Continuing—Continuation of exploration activity; Extension—Extension of delineated resource; New—New area not reported by current company in previous year’s survey.
Reported resource	The quantity of reserve or resource as reported by the source of information.  No attempt was made to further define the resource level beyond what was reported or to verify the existence of the reported resource.
Resource level	Where possible, information was set to conform to resource level as defined by USGS Circular 831.  Standards may vary between countries and companies.  Reported resources may vary from measured reserves to identified resources.
Activity type(s)	Principle exploration activities that occurred or planned for the specified year.  Drilling length has been converted to meters using a conversion factor of 0.3048 feet per meter.
Financial data	Value of planned or actual exploration expenditure, or other specified economic parameter.  Where no currency units were expressed, value assumed to be in Australian dollars if Australian company, Canadian dollars if Canadian company, or U.S. dollars if U.S. company.
Source of information	Bibliographic data for the data source, if published.  Includes abbreviated name of reference, date of publication, and page number, if known.  May not conform to USGS bibliographic style.  MIT refers to data provided to the author by other USGS scientists.
Notes	Freeform field describing current exploration activities, usually reported using specific terminology used by the data source.
Reported location	Location information given if provided by source of information.  Latitude/longitude coordinates were extracted from the Infomine database (Infomine Inc., Vancouver, B.C., Canada, accessed various dates at URL http://www.infomine.com).  No attempt was made to determine the accuracy of site locations.
ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONS
Common abbreviations or definitions of commonly used terms include:
Drilling types
diamond	Diamond core drilling provides high level of reliability from core samples of hard rock formations.
RC	Reverse circulation core drilling provides high level of reliability from chip or core samples of soft rock formations.
RAB	Rotary air blast drilling provides low level of reliability from chip samples.
Length
km	kilometers
mi	miles
Location
d	degrees of latitude/longitude
E	east of a specified point
m	minutes of latitude/longitude
N	north of a specified point
NE	northeast of a specified point
NW	northwest of a specified point
S	south of a specified point
SE	southeast of a specified point
SW	southwest of a specified point
W	west of a specified point
Resource levels
Measured (M)	Denotes resource quantity computed from dimensions revealed from outcrops, trenches, workings, or closely-spaced drill holes; grade computed from the results of detailed sampling.
M+I	Includes measured plus indicated resources, in which quantity and grade are computed from information similar to measured resources, but the sampling sites or drill holes are further apart.  The degree of assurance is less than measured resources but high enough to assume continuity between points of observation.  Essentially equivalent to demonstrated level as reported by USGS Circular 831.
M+I+I	Measured plus indicated plus inferred resources, in which estimates are based on an assumed continuity beyond measured and indicated resources, for which there is geologic evidence.  Inferred resources may or may not be supported by samples or measurements.
P+P	Denotes proven plus probable reserves, popular terms similar to reserve base as defined by USGS Circular 831.  Generally, reserves denote that part of the identified resource that meets specified physical and chemical criteria related to current mining and production practices, including grade, quality, thickness, and depth.  Proven reserves are considered economic by most companies, probable reserves may be economic under specified economic conditions.
Reserve	Undifferentiated resource with a relatively high level of economic assurance.  Should not be considered necessarily equivalent to the reserve reported in USGS Circular 831.  Indicates a relatively high degree of assurance that the quantity may be economically recoverable, but this definition can vary significantly from company to company.
Resource	Undifferentiated resource with a relatively low level of economic assurance.  Should not be considered necessarily equivalent to the resource reported in USGS Circular 831.  Indicates a concentration of a mineral commodity in such form and amount that economic extraction of the commodity is currently or potentially feasible.
Weights and Measures
g/t	grams per metric ton
gm	grams
k	thousand
kg	kilograms
koz	thousand troy ounces
kt	thousand metric tons
lb	pounds
M	million
Moz	million troy ounces
Mt	million metric tons
oz	troy ounces
oz/t	ounces per metric ton
t	metric tons
ton	metric tons