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oa A tailored workflow for advanced high-resolution seismic imaging of mineral exploration targets
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, Mineral Exploration Symposium, Sep 2020, Volume 2020, p.1 - 3
Abstract
High-resolution seismic images of mineral deposits and their host rocks are an important asset for geological modeling and interpretation as well as for a reliable estimate of their economic potential. We present a tailored workflow for imaging of seismic data acquired for mineral exploration, comprising data pre-processing, construction of a velocity model by full waveform inversion and generation of a seismic depth image using focusing pre-stack depth migration techniques. This approach can handle challenging subsurface environments typical for hardrock environments, e.g. strong velocity contrasts in the shallow overburden or steeply dipping structures. We show a successful application of these techniques in two case studies, one using 3D seismic data acquired at the Ludvika iron-oxide mining site of Nordic Iron Ore AB in Sweden and the other one using 2D and sparse-3D seismic data sets from the Kylylahti polymetallic mine site of Boliden in Finland. Here, the application of this workflow is shown for controlled-source (active) seismic data but can be equally well applied to passive seismic data sets.
