The role of geophysics in enhancing mine planning decision-making in small-scale mining

Abstract

Small-scale mining usually operates under high geological uncertainty conditions. This turns mine planning into a complex and sometimes inaccurate task, resulting in low productivity and substantial variability in the quantity and quality of the mineral products. This research demonstrates how the application of a novel methodology that relies on traditional and low-cost geophysical methods can contribute to mine planning in small-scale mining. A combination of resistivity and induced polarization methods is applied to enhance mine planning decision-making in three small-scale mining operations. This approach allows for the acquisition of new data regarding local geological settings, supporting geological modelling and enhancing decision-making processes for mine planning in a timely and low-cost fashion. The results indicate time savings of up to 77% and cost reductions of up to 94% as compared with conventional methods, contributing to more effective mine planning and, ultimately, improving sustainability in small-scale mining.

Inversion of Geomagnetic Anomalies Caused by Ore Masses Using Hunger Games Search Algorithm

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Estimation of source-body model parameters is an essential step in the interpretation of geomagnetic anomalies (Ekinci et al, 2017). From a mining perspective, geomagnetic exploration can play a key role in reducing some geological uncertainties and also yields appropriate information for decision making in early comprehension of an ore deposit (Silva et al, 2022;Tichauer et al, 2020). For a better interpretation of observed geomagnetic anomalies, several data processing techniques have been introduced so far.

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