Seismic properties of the Voisey’s Bay massive sulfide deposit: Insights into approaches to seismic imaging

Geophysics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. WC59-WC68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deanne Duff ◽  
Charles Hurich ◽  
Sharon Deemer
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Seismic Imaging ◽  
Imaging Technique ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Massive Sulfide ◽  
Mineral Deposit ◽  
Sulfide Deposit ◽  
Seismic Velocities ◽  
Sulfide Ores ◽  
Host Rocks

Seismic methods offer significant potential advantages for minerals exploration over more traditional geophysical techniques because of the comparatively high resolution of seismic imaging. This is particularly true as minerals exploration is required to explore deeper to find resources. However, adaptation of seismic imaging techniques to the complex crystalline targets common in the mining environment requires a thorough understanding of the physical properties of the specific combination of ore and host rocks under consideration to choose an appropriate imaging technique. Analysis of the sulfide ores and associated host rocks from the Voisey’s Bay nickel-copper-cobalt deposit indicates that in the pyrrohotite-pentlandite-rich but pyrite-poor assemblage at Voisey’s Bay, seismic velocities are significantly lower ([Formula: see text]) than either the felsic or mafic host rocks ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]). This observation is in contrast with pyrite-rich massive sulfide ores that have velocities that are significantly higher than typical host rocks. The large velocity contrast between the Voisey’s Bay ores and their host rocks makes them good targets for tomographic imaging. However, due to the trade-off between the low velocities and high densities of the Voisey’s Bay sulfides, acoustic impedance contrasts can be quite modest making them less attractive for seismic reflection imaging. Detailed analysis of two different mineralized zones at Voisey’s Bay further demonstrated that, depending on the limiting signal-to-noise ratio, the choice of an effective seismic imaging technique is not universal across a mineral deposit and may be affected by subtle variations in sulfide mineralogy and by the structural/magmatic setting. Our analysis clearly indicated that knowledge of physical properties and geologic setting is critical to the choice of which seismic technique to apply in a given exploration setting.

Physical properties and seismic imaging of massive sulfides

Geophysics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 1882-1889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Salisbury ◽  
Bernd Milkereit ◽  
Graham Ascough ◽  
Robin Adair ◽  
Larry Matthews ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Seismic Imaging ◽  
Country Rock ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Geometric Constraints ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
Massive Sulfides ◽  
Ore Bodies ◽  
Text Density ◽  
Representative Samples

Laboratory studies show that the acoustic impedances of massive sulfides can be predicted from the physical properties ([Formula: see text], density) and modal abundances of common sulfide minerals using simple mixing relations. Most sulfides have significantly higher impedances than silicate rocks, implying that seismic reflection techniques can be used directly for base metals exploration, provided the deposits meet the geometric constraints required for detection. To test this concept, a series of 1-, 2-, and 3-D seismic experiments were conducted to image known ore bodies in central and eastern Canada. In one recent test, conducted at the Halfmile Lake copper‐nickel deposit in the Bathurst camp, laboratory measurements on representative samples of ore and country rock demonstrated that the ores should make strong reflectors at the site, while velocity and density logging confirmed that these reflectors should persist at formation scales. These predictions have been confirmed by the detection of strong reflections from the deposit using vertical seismic profiling and 2-D multichannel seismic imaging techniques.

3D Seismic Imaging of a Deep Massive Sulfide Deposit

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Milkereit ◽  
E. K. Berrer ◽  
A. Watts ◽  
B. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Imaging ◽  
Massive Sulfide ◽  
Sulfide Deposit ◽  
3D Seismic ◽  
Massive Sulfide Deposit

Isotopic Studies of Ore-Leads in the Hanson Lake-Flin Flon-Snow Lake Mineral Belt Saskatchewan and Manitoba

1972 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 500-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. F. Sangster
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Massive Sulfide ◽  
Good Evidence ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Sulfide Ores ◽  
Geological Evidence ◽  
Isotopic Studies ◽  
Mineral Belt ◽  
Flin Flon ◽  
Host Rocks

Lead isotope abundances in 4 stratabound sulfide ores are presented and show characteristics of being single-stage lead deposits. Model ages based on these data range from 1780 ± 44 to 1900 ± 44 m.y. and are considered to be close approximations of the time of ore formation. Geological evidence in the massive sulfide deposits suggests they are coeval with their host rocks, which are predominantly volcanics of the Amisk Group. If this assumption is correct the average model lead age of the ores is essentially the age of the enclosing rocks. Within error limits the results are in good agreement with published Rb-Sr ages for Amisk rocks of the Flin Flon area, and with U-Pb ages in zircons of rhyolites, which also contain similar, massive sulfide ores in the Churchill Province of Arizona. This is considered to be good evidence that the Hanson Lake-Flin Flon-Snow Lake volcanic mineral belt, previously regarded as Archean, is Aphebian in part.A previously published Archean, Rb-Sr isochron for volcanic rocks in the Hanson Lake area may indicate that Amisk-type rocks are a folded complex of both Aphebian and Archean lithologies. The suggested Aphebian age of the Amisk-Missi Groups and their equivalents, indicates they are possibly eugeosynclinal equivalents of the miogeosynclinal Hurwitz sediments.

Massive sulfide deposits of the Noranda area, Quebec. III. The Ansil mine

1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1699-1730 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Barrett ◽  
W. H. MacLean ◽  
S. Cattalani ◽  
L. Hoy ◽  
G. Riverin
Keyword(s):  
Hanging Wall ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Massive Sulfide ◽  
Hydrothermal Activity ◽  
Sulfide Deposit ◽  
Sulfide Deposits ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Host Rocks ◽  
Low K ◽  
General Range

The Ansil massive sulfide deposit occurs at the contact of the underlying Northwest Rhyolite and the overlying Rusty Ridge Andesite, in the lower part of the Central Mine sequence of the Blake River Group. The orebody, which is roughly ellipsoidal in outline and up to 200 m × 150 m across, contained reserves of 1.58 Mt of massive sulfide grading 7.2% Cu, 0.9% Zn, 1.6 g/t Au, and 26.5 g/t Ag. Production began in 1989. Least-altered host rocks are low-K basaltic andesites and low-K rhyolites. These rocks have Zr/Y ratios of ~5 and LaN/YbN ratios of ~2.3, typical of tholeiitic volcanic rocks, although their major-element chemistry is transitional between tholeiitic and calc-alkaline volcanic rocks.The Ansil deposit, which dips ~50° east, is a single orebody comprising two main massive sulfide lenses (up to ~35 m thick) connected laterally via a thinner blanket of massive sulfides, with thin discontinuous but conformable massive magnetite units at the base and top of the orebody. Sulfide ore consists of massive to banded pyrrhotite–chalcopyrite. In the downplunge lens, up to 10 m of massive magnetite are capped by up to 10 m of massive sulfide. Finely banded cherty tuff, with sphalerite–pyrite–chalcopyrite, forms a discontinuous fringe to the deposit.The two main lenses of massive sulfide have the highest contents of Cu, Ag, and Au and are thought to have formed in areas of major hydrothermal input. Altered feeder zones contain either chlorite + chalcopyrite + pyrrhotite ± magnetite, or chlorite + magnetite ± sulfides. Footwall mineralization forms semiconformable zones ~5–10 m thick that directly underlie the orebody and high-angle pipelike zones that extend at least 50 m into the footwall. Ti–Zr–Al plots indicate that almost all altered footwall rocks were derived from a homogeneous rhyolite precursor. Hanging-wall andesites were also altered. Despite some severe alteration, all initial volcanic rock compositions can be readily identified, and thus mass changes can be calculated. Silica has been both significantly added or removed from the footwall, whereas K has been added except in feeder pipes. Oxygen-isotope compositions up to at least 50 m into the hanging wall and footwall are typically depleted in δ18O by 2–6‰. These rocks have gained Fe + Mg and lost Si. Altered samples in general range from light-rare-earth-element (REE) depleted to light-REE enriched, although some samples exhibit little REE modification despite strong alkali depletion. Mineralized volcanic rocks immediately below the orebody are enriched in Eu (as are some Cu-rich sulfides in the orebody).Contact and petrographic relations generally suggest that the main zone of massive magnetite formed by replacement of cp–po-rich sulfides, although local relations are ambiguous. Magnetite formation may reflect waning hydrothermal activity, during which fluids mixed with seawater and became cooler and more oxidized. Cu-rich feeder pipes that cut magnetite-rich footwall indicate a renewal of Cu-sulfide mineralization after magnetite deposition. Chloritic zones with disseminated sulfides occur up to a few hundred metres above the orebody, attesting to continuing hydrothermal activity.

Compositional peculiarities of the host rocks and ores of the Lazursky ore field, Zmeinogorsk ore region of the Rudny Altai minerogenic zone

2021 ◽  
pp. 36-47
Author(s):  
Tatyana SERAVINA ◽  
Svetlana KUZNETSOVA ◽  
Ludmila FILATOVA
Keyword(s):  
Massive Sulfide ◽  
Ore Deposits ◽  
Sulfide Ores ◽  
Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide ◽  
Sulfide Deposits ◽  
Ore Bodies ◽  
Ore Minerals ◽  
Copper Pyrite ◽  
Host Rocks ◽  
Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide Deposits

The article describes composition of the host rocks and ores of the Lazursky and Maslyansky polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits of the Lazursky ore field located within the Zmeinogorsk ore region of the Rudny Altai minerogenic zone. The ore field is composed of various facies of the Devonian (Late Givetian – Frasnian) ore-bearing siliceous-terrigenous basalt-rhyolite formation containing horizons of synvolcanic metasomatites. All rocks of the ore field were subjected to folding and schistosity with zones of tectonic brecciation. Hydrothermal alterations are represented by carbonatization and chloritization. The ore bodies exposed at the Lazursky and Maslyansky ore deposits are represented by copper-pyrite, copper, and zinc-copper-pyrite massive sulfide ores and other varieties. The major ore minerals of the deposits are chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite, marcasite, and pyrrhotite.

Seismic detection and characterization of a man-made karst analog — A feasibility study

Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. WB35-WB48
Author(s):  
Roland Gritto ◽  
Ali Elobaid Elnaiem ◽  
Fateh Alrahman Mohamed ◽  
Fadhil Sadooni
Keyword(s):  
Ambient Noise ◽  
Seismic Imaging ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Sharp Decrease ◽  
Seismic Velocities ◽  
Water Drainage ◽  
Imaging Results ◽  
Noise Data

At the site of a water drainage shaft on the campus of Qatar University that serves as a man-made karst analog, two seismic imaging techniques were adapted to use resonant scattered waves recorded during active-source seismic surveys and during passive ambient-noise surveys. Data acquisition included two seismic transmission surveys that encompassed the shaft and a passive ambient-noise survey that extended across the top of the shaft. Seismic imaging of band-pass-filtered resonance waves correctly estimated the location and dimension of the shaft. Furthermore, the method detected the presence and the location of a horizontal drainage pipe and gravel bed connecting neighboring water shafts. Ambient-noise data were analyzed by computing amplitude values of the seismic records in spectral passbands. The results indicated an amplification of seismic amplitudes above the shaft for low-frequency passbands and a sharp decrease in amplitude values for high-frequency passbands. The high- and low-amplitude values displayed as a function of the receiver position allowed for accurate detection and location of the shaft in space. Ground truthing of the imaging results confirmed the accuracy of the seismic techniques, whereas numerical modeling supported the interpretation of the ambient-noise data. The techniques used do not require knowledge of the seismic velocities in the subsurface, but they depend on a priori information about the approximate location of the target.

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