Electricity: measuring and testing – Of geophysical surface or subsurface in situ
Patent
1986-09-02
1988-09-27
Eisenzopf, Reinhard J.
Electricity: measuring and testing
Of geophysical surface or subsurface in situ
324344, 367 14, G01V 1100
Patent
active
047744693
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to geophysics, namely, to methods of locating useful minerals by seismic prospecting and prospecting by electromagnetic waves, and more particularly it relates to geophysical prospecting of polymineral ore bodies.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ore bodies in different deposits, and even within a single deposit, may differ broadly in their mineral composition. In any deposit, only those ore bodies which contain a substantial percentage of the useful mineral or a combination of several useful or valuable minerals are of commercial attraction. Hence, the determination of the mineral composition of ore bodies represents an essential aspect of geophysical prospecting.
Conventionally, the determination of the mineral composition of ore bodies has been conducted by a geological technique including drilling a network of holes through a deposit and assessing the contents of the ore bodies traversed by the holes by analysis of core samples taken therefrom. However, as the mineral composition of ore bodies tends to vary even within one and the same ore body, it becomes necessary to drill multiple holes to adequately evaluate the feasibility of opening up this or that ore body by mine workings and its full-scale mining. This geological approach is relatively time- and labor-consuming and costly, and even then it is not sufficiently effective, for each single hole supplies data on the composition of the ore body within a very limited area, more often than not only a few centimeters in diameter, which does not permit assessment with appropriate accuracy of the average composition of the ore body and the total amount of a valuable mineral contained therein.
There are also known several geophysical methods of evaluating the mineral composition of polymineral ore bodies. There is known a contact method of polarization curves (cf., Y.S. Ryss, Prospecting of Ore Bodies by Contact Method of Polarization Curves, in Russian, published in 1973 by NEDRA Publ., Leningrad, p. 167) based on connecting one pole of an electric current source to a point of the ore body in a hole or in a mine working, and connecting the other pole of the same source to an electrode embedded in the parent rock, whereafter the electric current is made to flow through the circuit thus formed, the value of this current being gradually raised. Various minerals contained in the ore body under investigation enter electrochemical reactions at different values of the flowing current, so that the value of the registered potential varies in steps. The values of the potentials of the electrochemical reactions are compared with reference values obtained in advance in a laboratory environment and represent the presence in the ore body of a known mineral. Thus, when the registered potential values coincide with the reference ones, a conclusion can be made on the actual presence of the corresponding mineral in the ore body. In this way the mineral composition of the ore body under investigation is analyzed; whereas the threshold values of the electric current are used for assessing the quantitative composition of the minerals and the approximate scale of the ore deposit, as part of the phase of evaluating detected ore manifestations. However, this method involves numerous technical and practical difficulties arising from the complexity of selecting a reliable spot of contact with the ore body, from large values of the electric current required (as big as several dozen to several hundred Amperes). Moreover, the time taken to obtain a single polarization curve is from several dozen minutes to several days, so that one contact session with the ore body usually consumes a number of working days. It can be seen from the above that the employment of this method in an underground mine environment is severely hindered.
The abovedescribed method does not allow prospecting for an ore body unless the latter is pierced by holes or mine workings requiring as it does a direct contact with the ore. Neither
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M. P. Volarovich et al., Piezoelectric Method of Geophysical Prospecting of Quartz and Pegmatite Veins, 1969, Nauka Publ., Moscow, pp. 65-71.
E. I. Parkhomenko, Electrization Effects in Rock, 1968, Nauka Publ., Moscow, pp. 228-237.
Demin Vladislav M.
Los Vladimir F.
Maibuk Zinovy-Jury Y.
Sobolev Gennady A.
Edmonds Warren S.
Eisenzopf Reinhard J.
Institut Fiziki Zemli Imeni Shmidta an SSSR
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