Future Development of Gold Mineralization Utilizing Integrated Geology and Aeromagnetic Techniques: A Case Study in the Barramiya Mining District, Central Eastern Desert of Egypt

Contrib. Geophys. Geod.

Araffa

et al. 2022

Groundwater is an important factor in establishing new urban communities, especially in coastal arid and semi-arid regions. Egypt is one of the world's driest countries, with hyper-arid territory accounting for 86% of the total area and arid and semi-arid terrain accounting for the rest. The present work aims to demonstrate the powerful integration of geophysical techniques to assess groundwater potentiality and suitability in Gara Oasis (GO), which describes a good example of Egypt's strategic southern extension of its arid north-western coast. Geophysical methods, including electrical resistivity and aeromagnetics, were used to evaluate groundwater resources. The study region reduced to pole total magnetic intensity map is subjected to digital filters that include derivatives, analytic signal, and tilt angle. The possible structures controlling the shallow and deep aquifers are delineated and integrated with geoelectric results. Moreover, two magnetic tomography sections are constructed to show the subsurface distribution of magnetic susceptibilities and formation boundaries. Ten vertical electric soundings (VESs) are measured and used in this study to construct four geoelectrical cross-sections. According to the results, Gara's commonly calculated subsurface resistivity model comprises six major resistivity layers. The 5th layer, in particular, is composed of Fractured dolomitic Limestone and represents a possible promising shallow aquifer. Moreover, as evidenced by various magnetic data filters, the shallow (Miocene carbonate) and deep (Nubian sandstone) aquifers are structurally controlled and regulated by a system of faults or contacts. These contacts trends NW–SE, E–W, and NE–SW as common trends emerged from the total derivative and tilt maps. Results suggest that the central part (N–S zone) together with the western side of Gara, have the most notable aquifer possibility demanded future improvement strategies.

Section: Magnetic Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geophysical studies to delineate groundwater aquifer in arid regions: A case study, Gara Oasis, Egypt

NAZIH

Contrib. Geophys. Geod.

Araffa

et al. 2022

“…The reduced-to-pole (RTP) map is used to minimize the impact of the geomagnetic field’s skewness and then processed using different filters to enhance the signal and extract subsurface controlling parameters. These filters are (a) The Derivative filter to extract lineaments and magnetic contacts, (b) the analytic signal, tilt, and Euler deconvolution filters to explore rock units’ edges and magnetic contacts and depths to magnetic sources 18 , 30 , 36 , 62 – 64 , (c) the magnetic gradient tensor’s normalized source strength (NSS) filter that serves as an efficient edge detection filter. The NSS filter, in particular, is only slightly and not strongly dependent on magnetization direction for a sizeable class of sources.…”

Section: Field Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is proportional to the strength of the source and reaches its maximum directly above the magnetic source. When looking for mineralization zones associated with magnetic contacts, this technique is crucial in mineral prospecting 18 , 65 , and (d) the Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET) grid analysis technique examines an image's texture to identify areas of structural complexity and, as a result, assess the likelihood of the existence of a gold deposit 66 , 67 . This method first locates magnetic discontinuities, then identifies areas of discontinuity, and then analyses structural relationships to detect crossings, junctions or contacts, and changes in direction in the strike.…”

Section: Field Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, it is also the favourite for studying the tectonic structure, identification of intra-basement faults and uplifts, basin modelling, and structural geometry 13 – 16 , petroleum exploration modelling of geothermal and groundwater resources 17 – 19 , allowing the visualization of the geological structure of the upper crust, like faults, aids in the discovery of buried objects such as pipes, drums, and unexploded ordnance 20 . Furthermore, it aids in mineral exploration 13 , 16 , 18 , 21 – 30 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring gold mineralization in altered ultramafic rocks in south Abu Marawat, Eastern Desert, Egypt

Eldougdoug

Abdelazeem

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

Self Cite

Gold mining is an important strategic sector. The search for mineral reserves is moving deeper as more accessible shallow resources are discovered. Geophysical techniques are now being employed more frequently in mineral exploration because they are quick and can provide crucial subsurface information for discovering potential metal deposits, particularly in high-relief and inaccessible places. The potential for gold in a large-scale gold mining (LSGM) locality in the South Abu Marawat area is investigated using a geological field investigation that includes rock sampling, structural measurements, detailed petrography, reconnaissance geochemistry, and thin section analysis, integrated with various transformation filters of surface magnetic data (analytic signal, normalized source strength, tilt angle), contact occurrence density maps, and tomographic modelling for the subsurface magnetic susceptibilities. The benefits of remote sensing (RS) and its technology in mapping detailed rock differentiation, and characterizing physical objects on the land surface using various spatial, and spectral resolution datasets are integrated. Both aeromagnetic and measured land magnetic profiles are used to investigate the area’s present geological conditions and possible future mining localities. Results indicate that gold mineralization in the study area is linked to the altered ultramafic zones that are associated with faulting and shearing and characterized by a low magnetic susceptibility anomaly.

“…It is also inexpensive including both regional and local investigations. The magnetic method has mostly been used for regional surveys in hydrocarbon exploration (Abdelazeem et al, 2020(Abdelazeem et al, , 2021; de Smet et al, 2021;Abdelrahman et al, 2019;Kwami et al, 2018;Abdulrahman et al, 2017;Helaly, 2017;Gobashy and Al-Garni, 2008;Al-Garni et al, 2006); engineering geophysics (Araffa et al, 2021;Abdelazeem et al, 2014); groundwater exploration (Gobashy et al, 2021b;Al-Garni et al, 2006); mineral exploration (Gobashy et al, 2020(Gobashy et al, , 2021aEl-Sawy et al, 2018;Abdelrahman et al, 2019), mapping geological structures and igneous intrusions (Al-Garni et al, 2012;Ndatuwong and Yadav, 2014;Wang et al, 2017;El-Sawy et al, 2018); archaeo-geophysics (Schneidhofer et al, 2017); as well as estimating sedimentary basin thickness and identify groundwater contamination (Rehman et al, 2019) and geologic hazard and risk assessments (Fergany et al, 2015;Al-Garni and Gobashy, 2010) are examples of such wide range of applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrogeochemical and geophysical investigations to delineate underground water aquifer in arid regions: A case study, Gara oasis, Egypt

NAZIH

Contrib. Geophys. Geod.

Salem

et al. 2022

The goal of the present study is to investigate, delineate, and evaluate the shallow Miocene groundwater aquifer with vertical and lateral facies variations in the Gara oasis, western desert of Egypt. This oasis represents a typical arid region in North Africa. Through grid texture analysis, lineament detection, edge detection, thresholding, and identifying areas of structural complexity from the filtered residual reduced-to-pole magnetic anomaly map, it is possible to outline the fracture zones that principally control the groundwater aquifers and water flow in the area. The groundwater quality and quantity are examined hydro-geochemically through nine groundwater samples that were gathered from wells and springs distributed throughout the area around Gara Lake. Measurements of physio-chemical parameters (TDS, pH, and EC) are carried out and its spatial distribution is critically studied. The results reveal that the ion-exchange process caused by water-rock interaction is the dominant process. Furthermore, the main ions in the groundwater in the study areas were Na and Cl. This might be due to evaporation or halite dissolution with the upward flow of waters through the fractures from the deep aquifer of the Nubian sandstone to the shallow aquifer of the fractured Miocene limestone.