Establishing a new site for mineral extraction is a costly investment. It pays to know exactly what is in the ground before digging. Doing the best job possible and testing a large number of sites in the preliminary search are all about reducing costs through lack of foresight. To help your company maximize wealth, find a firm that specializes in mining exploration and take their services if it suits your needs.
These methods are way more sophisticated than panning for heavy metals, although that does remain one fast way to see if there are any ores in a soil deposit. There are now a lot of tests that soil scientists can do, including using magnetic metal detectors and taking cylindrical soil samples to determine what the bedrock is like. Deeper samples as well as shock-driven geological sonar can figure out what treasures are deep below.