Seismic depth imaging of iron-oxide deposits and their host rocks in the Ludvika mining area of central Sweden     

Lena Bräunig  Stefan Buske  Alireza Malehmir  Emma Bäckström  Monica Schön  Paul Marsden 《Geophysical Prospecting》2020,68(1):24-43

The development of cost-effective and environmentally acceptable geophysical methods for the exploration of mineral resources is a challenging task. Seismic methods have the potential to delineate the mineral deposits at greater depths with sufficiently high resolution. In hardrock environments, which typically host the majority of metallic mineral deposits, seismic depth-imaging workflows are challenged by steeply dipping structures, strong heterogeneity and the related wavefield scattering in the overburden as well as the often limited signal-to-noise ratio of the acquired data. In this study, we have developed a workflow for imaging a major iron-oxide deposit at its accurate position in depth domain while simultaneously characterizing the near-surface glacial overburden including surrounding structures like crossing faults at high resolution. Our workflow has successfully been showcased on a 2D surface seismic legacy data set from the Ludvika mining area in central Sweden acquired in 2016. We applied focusing prestack depth-imaging techniques to obtain a clear and well-resolved image of the mineralization down to over 1000 m depth. In order to account for the shallow low-velocity layer within the depth-imaging algorithm, we carefully derived a migration velocity model through an integrative approach. This comprised the incorporation of the tomographic near-surface model, the extension of the velocities down to the main reflectors based on borehole information and conventional semblance analysis. In the final step, the evaluation and update of the velocities by investigation of common image gathers for the main target reflectors were used. Although for our data set the reflections from the mineralization show a strong coherency and continuity in the seismic section, reflective structures in a hardrock environment are typically less continuous. In order to image the internal structure of the mineralization and decipher the surrounding structures, we applied the concept of reflection image spectroscopy to the data, which allows the imaging of wavelength-specific characteristics within the reflective body. As a result, conjugate crossing faults around the mineralization can directly be imaged in a low-frequency band while the internal structure was obtained within the high-frequency bands.  相似文献   

Improved structural interpretation of legacy 3D seismic data from Karee platinum mine (South Africa) through the application of novel seismic attributes     

Musa S.D. Manzi  Gordon R.J. Cooper  Alireza Malehmir  Raymond J. Durrheim 《Geophysical Prospecting》2020,68(1):145-163

Seismic detection of faults, dykes, potholes and iron-rich ultramafic pegmatitic bodies is of great importance to the platinum mining industry, as these structures affect safety and efficiency. The application of conventional seismic attributes (such as instantaneous amplitude, phase and frequency) in the hard-rock environment is more challenging than in soft-rock settings because the geology is often complex, reflections disrupted and the seismic energy strongly scattered. We have developed new seismic attributes that sharpen seismic reflections, enabling additional structural information to be extracted from hard-rock seismic data. The symmetry attribute is based on the invariance of an object with respect to transformations such as rotation and reflection; it is independent of the trace reflection amplitude, and hence a better indicator of the lateral continuity of thin and weak reflections. The reflection-continuity detector attribute is based on the Hilbert transform; it enhances the visibility of the peaks and troughs of the seismic traces, and hence the continuity of weak reflections. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these new seismic attributes by applying them to a legacy 3D seismic data set from the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. These seismic attributes show good detection of deep-seated thin (∼1.5 m thick) platinum ore bodies and their associated complex geological structures (faults, dykes, potholes and iron-rich ultramafic pegmatites). They provide a fast, cost-effective and efficient interpretation tool that, when coupled with horizon-based seismic attributes, can reveal structures not seen in conventional interpretations.  相似文献