Using Gravity Gradiometry to find Gold Deposits in Weathered Terrains

Airborne gravity gradiometry (AGG) is a new geophysical tool that has been limited in its ability to find many mineral deposists in weathered terrains due to regolith variations swamping the signals from subtle changes in basement rock density. Previous approaches to adress this issue have tried and failed to compensate for the regolith. We have simulated (in 3-D)the response of a number of gold deposits as examples of using gravity gradiometry to find mineral deposits indirectly. The result is that most near-surface deposists in weathered terrains have a detectable negative gravity gradient anomaly due to preferential weathering. Thus, we demonstrate a new way of interpreting AGG data to find gold deposits in areas normally considered unsuitable for AGG.