it's a plane??

there has been a small-engine aircraft circling over Misungwi for the past week or so.

Last Friday I heard it go by no fewer than 6 times, then it seemed to have gone away, but this morning (bright and early)....it's baaaack!

My first thought, of course, was that one of the presidential candidates used a helicopter to get to and from political rallies (not to mention as a FANTASTIC way to draw airplane-curious voters, i.e. everyone who isn't both deaf and blind, to listen to his speeches), and maybe he was still cruising around. But wait, the elections were last week, so that makes no sense.

[speaking of which, the election results were announced yesterday, and despite the impressive aerial show, this candidate recieved only 6% of the vote. The leading party, CCM, once again won the elections, with President-elect Kikwete recieving over 80% of the vote. He will be sworn in today]

Very sketchy reports from people here suggest that whoever is in the plane is scouting the terrain looking for some sort of precious minerals (probably South Africans, they're all over this region when it comes to such things - there are a few gold mines just west of here, and a huge diamond mine a few hours south). This seemed like a reasonable explanation, until I started thinking. Now, i'm no geologist or whatever other professions involve looking for minerals and surveying landscapes and whatnot, but, um, what precious minerals can you detect from a small single-engine aircraft? And how? What machines do you use to find evidence of gold or diamonds or Tanzanite or who knows what, underground?

weird