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Investors have been avoiding the Okurike Barite due to paucity of information on its economic worth in spite of the high demand for barites by the local industries. This study was embarked upon to determine the spread and industrial quality of the barite deposit in order to bridge the information gap. The Okurike Barite mineralised site was investigated using geophysical Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and geological techniques. The geophysical data were acquired along three profiles while the barite samples were analysed using the laboratory techniques in order to determine their elemental compositions and physical characteristics. Results show that the barites occur with gravels, breccias and weathered basement materials within a very limited region. The resistivity values of the barite mineralised region were observed to vary between 731 and ~1500 Ωm. The barites are characterised by specific gravity of 4.4, density of 3.64 g/cm 3 , porosity of 28%, uniaxial compressive strength of 29.4 kN/mm 2 and water absorption capacity of 1.5%. The elements Ba and Fe dominate the elemental composition with 77.28 and 19.98% respectively. BaO, Fe 2 O 3 and MnO are preferentially enriched with abundance of 71.28, 21.40 and 6.10% respectively. These results show that the industrial quality of the Okurike Barite is high although its spread is limited.

Groundwater potential of some parts of Cross River State, Nigeria, was assessed involving vertical electrical sounding (VES) and high-resolution aeromagnetic methods (HRAM). The VES and HRAM dataset were used to delineate the hydro-lithostratigraphic units and map the spatial distributions of geologic structures, respectively. The electro-stratigraphic sections revealed the various hydro-lithostratigraphic units composed of fractured/weathered crystalline basement, sandstones, siltstones, sandy shales, and highly baked and fractured shales occurring at different depths. Generally, the unsaturated top layer is composed of shales, marl, clay, silt, gravel and lateritic materials with resistivity ranging from ~ 3.0 to ~ 550 Ω m. This layer is underlain by various aquifer units like sandstones, siltstones, fractured shales and limestone/marl, and fractured/weathered basement occurring at different depths (~ 30 to ≤ 100 m) as revealed by the electro-stratigraphic sections obtained in the study area. In the Calabar Flank (CF), Oban Massif (OM) and Ikom-Mamfe Embayment (IME), the apparent resistivity for these hydro-lithostratigraphic units varied between ~ 8.50 and ~ 59.50 Ω m, ~ 120.2 and ~ 1562.6 Ω m and ~ 30.8 and ~ 277.2 Ω m, respectively. The enhanced total magnetic intensity maps and source parameter imaging result showed that the OM and IME are characterized by high concentration of short-wavelength anomalies, while the CF is dominated by relatively undisturbed thick sedimentation (~ 6217 m). HRAM results show that such areas are predominated by geologic structures like faults, fractures, fissure, dyke swamps, etc. caused by tectonics. Such geologic structures create secondary porosity and enhance permeability. From all the results obtained, OM and IME represent areas with moderate groundwater potential. The CF dominated by argillites with no significant tectonic activity is observed to have low groundwater potential.