Studies on the soil-geological transects at gold mining areas in northwest Sichuan show that the distribution of soil Bacillus cereus spore counts can indicate the underlying gold mineralization. The anomalies of spore counts flanked the subsurface orebodies while low spore counts occurred right in soils above the outcrops of the orebodies. This microbial exploration technique has the potential to be employed at promising exploration areas or mining areas. Non-mineralization factors such as soil types strongly influence the spore number, whichleads to varied background values at different mining areas. Application of this bio-method in regional exploration awaits the establishment of background database of B. cereus spore numbers at different soil environments.