Mineral Exploration

Fall 2014

Mineral Exploration is the official publication of the Association of Mineral Exploration British Columbia.

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Photographs : Alexander Lerche ; Doug Oldenburg F A L L 2 0 1 4 21 A lthough scientific research is necessary for successful mineral exploration, little of it is undertaken by min- eral explorers themselves. "Academia is where scientific research for min- eral exploration takes place," says Vancouver-based exploration geolo- gist Danae Voormeij. "Breakthroughs are shared with industry at conferences and in scientific bulletins. The sponsors are the major metal producers." The Geophysical Inversion Facility ( GIF) at t he Universit y of Brit ish Columbia is one example among many. GIF director Doug Oldenburg says the facility uses inversion to solve problems relevant to mineral exploration, as well as geotechnical and environmental prob- lems. "Inversion refers to processing data with computer software to obtain an image of the Earth," Oldenburg says. "For instance, magnetic data can be inverted to fi nd rocks that are easily mag- netized, and gravity data can be inverted to determine rock density." Oldenburg says geophysical inversion is akin to medical imaging: "CAT scans and MRIs both involve an energy source and a data recording." GIF's main focus is developing com- puter methodologies and software that generate 3D images of the Earth's sub- surface from geophysical data. "Each rock has a suite of physical properties," says Oldenburg. "Knowing the physical prop- erties, or structural relationship of these properties, can help solve geophysical problems. We liaise with companies, iden- tify problems and geophysical data sets, and then develop software to invert these data to construct a 3D image of the subsurface." GIF, which was founded in 1989, is led by Oldenburg and Professor Eldad Haber, conducting research in electromagnetics, potential fi elds and software tools. Electrical conductivity has applications in many problems in mineral exploration. "The underlying equations are compli- cated, and large-scale computing is needed," says Oldenburg. "In the last 10 years, we've developed the technology to simulate and invert these data. Our current focus is on making the algorithms more effi cient and applying them to fi eld data sets." The facility is reviewing some of its early work in potential fi elds research to develop a new generation of software. "For instance, magnetic susceptibility in mag- netic surveys can sometimes be very high, ACADEMIC RESEARCH IS PAVING THE WAY FOR SMARTER, MORE EFFICIENT EXPLORATION By Peter caULFieLD Breaking Breaking new ground new ground Breaking new ground Breaking Breaking new ground Breaking Danae Voormeij investigating artisanal mining pits in the West African jungle, Liberia. Doug Oldenburg Director, Geophysical Inversion Facility, University of British Columbia

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