<title>Preliminary evaluation of GPR for nickel laterite exploration</title>

Abstract

With the dramatic growth of interest in nickel laterite resource exploration, fuelled by increased demand and new processing technologies, the need for accurate resource delineation and careful mine planning becomes paramount. The traditional use of borehole grids to calculate ore reserves is neither sufficiently accurate nor cost-effective at many sites due to the complexity of tropical weathering profiles. Although an unconventional approach to laterite mine planning and resource delineation, ground penetrating radar (GPR) has shown tremendous potential for addressing project geology, resource delineation, and mine planning issues. GPR processing techniques have been developed specifically for laterite applications and utilized successfully at a number of sites worldwide. Each site exhibits unique geology, and thus radar characteristics. The GPR data have shown excellent correlation with the weathering profile as confirmed by boreholes and test pits. GPR has significantly increased the database of knowledge regarding project geology, as well as provided invaluable assistance to mine planning by imaging the bedrock weathering texture, including the precise location of subsurface pinnacle structures and fault planes. The information provided by the GPR data, in concert with strategically placed boreholes based on these data, has enabled a laterite project to be upgraded to the measured category of mineral resource.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.