Towards Multi-Scale Multi-Physics Exploration of Deep Land Mineral Deposits

Deep mineral deposits without surface signature elude conventional exploration paradigms, where state-of-the-art airborne or satellite-based scanning techniques map large greenfield areas to at best a few hundred meters depth. The technological levers to overcome this barrier are a) a direct increase of detection depth over large areas, e.g., via advanced regional geophysical methods and b) better accessibility of deeply penetrating geophysics through cost-efficiency increases. In this paper, we will discuss recent development, improvement, and deployment of highly promising innovative geophysical technologies selected with focus on cost-efficient high-impact discovery of deposits of Critical Raw Materials deeply buried under cover (particularly any deposit concealed beneath overburden of up to 1–2 km thickness) and their potential for mutually beneficial application. In particular, we will discuss recent advances towards the development of such a multi-scale multi-physics toolkit, namely 1) Low-cost high-impact electromagnetic and seismic techniques for understanding entire geological provinces and their potential for mineralizing events and 2) Cost-optimized target scale deeply penetrating combined electromagnetic and seismic imaging methods to characterize a (potential) ore deposit or the location of further associated deposits in its vicinity.