Journal de télédétection et SIG

Abstrait

Impact of Geophysics in Small-Scale Mining

Antonio Carlos Martins, Elisangela Romanelli Terenci, Giorgio De Tomi and Ricardo Marcelo Tichauer

Geological exploration for new mining ventures involves drilling campaigns, an expensive activity that may take significant time, with no guarantee of financial success. The literature review indicated that the average cost of drilling may reach over US $100 per meter drilled, and that the use of Geophysics can reduce by 30% to 50% the number of negative drill holes (holes that does not intercept the mineral orebody), thus reducing time and cost of mineral exploration. This paper shows how the application of Geophysics in two small-scale mining operations, a limestone and manganese mine, resulted in reduced exploration time with satisfactory results for the companies. In the limestone mine, Geophysics allowed the updating of the geological model. In the manganese mine, it contributed to the generation of a preliminary geological model for the deposit. In both cases, there was a significant reduction of the time spent on exploration.