The application of ZTEM to porphyry copper-gold exploration

Witherly, Ken; Sattel, Daniel

doi:10.1071/aseg2012ab329

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…ZTEM (z-axis tipper electromagnetic; Lo and Zang, 2008;Legault et al, 2012) natural field helicopter EM has been widely used in porphyry copper exploration for nearly a decade in mapping resistivity contrasts that characterize porphyry copper deposit alteration systems (Ford et al, 2007;Hoschke, 2011). Indeed many ZTEM case-study examples over porphyry deposits have been published, including Lo and Zang (2008) in the Safford district of Arizona; Holtham and Oldenburg, (2010) at Bingham Canyon, Utah; Sattel et al (2010) at Mt Milligan, BC, Izarra et al (2011) at Copaquire, Chile, Witherly and Sattel (2012) at Babine Lake-Morrison, BC, Paré et al (2012) at Pebble, Alaska, and, most recently, Hübert et al (2016) at Newton, BC. However, in spite of its extensive use in porphyry exploration (Legault, 2012), there are few recorded ZTEM porphyry case-studies involving a blind discoveryexceptionally, the ZTEM discovery of the Balboa Cu-Mo-Au porphyry at Cobre Panama, in Panama is presented here.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Balboa ZTEM Cu-Mo-Au porphyry discovery at Cobre Panama

Legault

Wijns

Izarra

et al. 2016

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This paper describes the ZTEM airborne EM and magnetic results over the porphyry copper-gold camp at Cobre Panama, with a focus on the discovery of the blind Balboa deposit in 2010, the first documented case attributed to the ZTEM system. Balboa is the westernmost of six porphyry copper-gold deposits that make up Cobre Panama and it escaped detection in 40 years of exploration that relied primarily on soil geochemistry, airborne magnetics and drilling. ZTEM was flown in summer 2010 to detect resistivity variations related to hidden porphyry systems in a region of dense jungle, difficult access and thick (20-30 m) conductive saprolite cover. The ZTEM survey detected all the known porphyry systems, including Balboa, based on anomalous conductive response. Our study presents the geophysical survey results at Cobre Panama and is supported by 2D-3D ZTEM and magnetic inversions that appear to validate the survey evidence. 2D synthetic modeling appears to confirm the detectability of the weakly conductive Balboa orebody below 30 m of saprolite cover.

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