Borehole resistivity and induced polarization tomography at the Canadian Shield for Mineral Exploration in north-western Sudbury

Mosaad Ali,Wei Qian,Yan Zhang,Dusabemariya Claire,Shulin Sun,Ajibola Richard Faruwa,Abdou Dodo Bohari,A Bulat,V Heyets,O Voloshyn,B Liu,O Zhevzhyk,Y Kryzhanivskyi

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202016800002

Abstract

Mineral exploration in the Canadian shield is a major challenge nowadays. This is because of the thick overburden cover and complex geology. Borehole tomography using resistivity and induced polarization (BHDCIP) method has a big advantage here due to that the data is acquired underneath the cover and data quality, in general, is superior to that acquired at the surface. BHDCIP provides good resistivity and chargeability data, which can identify mineralization easily. In this study, the BHDCIP survey with high-resolution data was carried out to identify mineralization zones in the McCreedy West zone, north-western Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Two and three-dimensional (2-D and 3-D) inversion results of three boreholes clearly revealed the mineralization zones and that harmonised with previous geological studies in the study area. The BHDCIP method provided insight and developed an informative subsurface map to identify the mineralization zones, thus proving it as a beneficial tool used for mineral exploration in complex geology with a minimal data survey and an irregular geometrical distribution.

Highlights

Geoelectrical methods (direct current (DC) resistivity and IP) have demonstrated to be a useful and effective tool in the exploration of mineral resources [1, 2]
The IP method is widely used for mineral exploration because it is the only geophysical technique that has the ability to discriminate conductive or semiconductive minerals disseminated in high electrical resistivity background [3,4,5,6,7]
We have demonstrated that the high-resolution DCIP system is able to collect meaningful data to aid mineral exploration, despite less than ideal BH geometries

Summary

Introduction

Geoelectrical methods (direct current (DC) resistivity and IP) have demonstrated to be a useful and effective tool in the exploration of mineral resources (metallic and non-metallic) [1, 2]. The IP method is widely used for mineral exploration because it is the only geophysical technique that has the ability to discriminate conductive or semiconductive minerals disseminated in high electrical resistivity background (host rock) [3,4,5,6,7]. In-hole datasets can supply information on the DCIP signatures of key lithologies and mineralization, enabling improved an understanding of which geophysical signature reflects geologic features of interest [8,9,10,11,12]. Spatial resolution is effectively carried out through cross-hole tomography (CHT). CHT is achieved through quadrupole measurements using several combinations of current (AB) and potential (MN) electrodes at different places to gain a very high-resolution image [13]

Methods

Results

Conclusion