Enhancing efficiency of solid mineral exploration

Solid mineral exploration is a very expensive process reaching sometimes hundreds of millions of Tenge in cost. In the meanwhile, efficiency of geological exploration is very low. The specialists from Lekoin Company and from the National Geological Service of Kazakhstan propose a new technology of solid mineral exploration, which allows a steep increase in probability of a mineral source discovery at simultaneous reduction in exploration cost. The technology includes a package of 10 research methods in combination with in-situ seismography. The root of the technology is the enhancement of exploration efficiency thr ough the multivariate analysis of geological and geophysical data and engineering studies. Such approach improves the fidelity of 3D geological modeling with the elaborate research of stratigraphy, tectonics, petrography, facies, magmatism, metamorphism (metasomatosis) and mineralogy, with detection of ore-bearing strata down to depths enclosing ore-generating geological formations. Furthermore, solid minerals differ from oil by a wide range of physicochemical properties which should be taken into account in each separate case by selecting special exploration techniques. For example, without seismic exploration, it is difficult to detect the: long-lived (mantle) fault intersecting bedded strata down to a depth greater than 3 km; thickness of the upper structural level; intrusives; the paleo volcano caldera in the zone of tectonic and magmatic activation; intrusive under volcanos; metasomatic zones; elements of uncomformability in geological section. Application of this technology made it possible to discover actual deposits of coking coal and high-grade copper–molybdenum ores, as well as solid mineral occurrences with the commercial contents of copper, lead, manganese, molybdenum and gold at exploration spending of 810 million of Tenge.