Mining Industry dates back to the dawn of civilization, and is
often considered as an Ancient Industry. Indus Valley civilization showed the
signs of copper,
bronze, silver, gold but not iron.. Under the series of Ask for Zinc, we bring to you the innovations in the
mining industry in various domains like exploration, ore deposit definition,
extraction & processing, transport & communications, health, safety and
mine reclamation.
INVERSION ALGORITHM - Innovations in Exploration
In mining, the first step is to discover an economically viable
deposit with the help of a combination of activities collectively known as
Exploration. For this, geologists search for mineral deposits in remote areas.
Methods such as geological surface mapping and sampling, geophysical
measurements and geochemical analysis are often applied at an early
stage to pin out potential deposits.
Among these methods, geophysics is traditionally used to
predict the position of a mineralized body by seeking out anomalies in the
magnetic field, gravitational field or electrical conductivity etc.
Inversion algorithms allow geophysical data to be used in an advanced way.
It first establishes the geophysical properties of the rocks and then measures
their geophysical signatures in the field, thus making it possible to generate 3D
models of their potential mineralization and surrounding geological
environment. Inversion algorithm enables resource explorers to extract
more insight from geophysical data by converting geophysical measurements into
3D images of the subsurface that can be integrated with other surface and
subsurface geologic observations.
Over the past decade, inversion algorithm has proved its
effectiveness in exploring various ore deposits and major oil reserves around
the world. The major examples being - iron ore and nickel belts of Western
Australia - iron oxide-copper-gold in Africa, South America and Australia –
copper deposits in Mongolia - nickel laterite in Colombia. Within the oil
industry, inversion algorithm has reduced uncertainty when exploring the
dense sedimentary section that surrounds the salt bodies in the Gulf of Mexico,
and also offshore West Africa and South America where the geology is more
complex and less predictable.
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