According to international standards of classification of stages of exploration, KCE dept. of mineral exploration is fully capable to perform all these stages including: Reconnaissance, prospecting general and detailed exploration.
1- Reconnaissance:
During this stage, operation will be done in a wide spread area like metallogeninc, structural belts or zones. Scale of the work is 1/250,000 or 1/100,000. Useful information layers of this stage are as follow:
- Geological map of scale 1/250,000 or 1/100,000
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- Geochemical map of scale 1/250,000 or 1/100,000
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- Geoche- Processed satellite images as photo map of appropriate scale, depends on the used raw data.mical map of scale 1/250,000 or 1/100,000
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- Geophysical information such as airborn map of scale 1/250,000 or 1/100,000.
- Economic geology information (reports) or mineral indication (distribution) maps or alteration maps.
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All the information layers put together in GIS environment and finally target areas will be revealed and after fields checking next steps will be recommended.
2- Prospecting:
This stage includes explorative operations at target area(s). Usual scale is 1/25,000 and the main jobs are as follow:
- Geological studies (mapping and sampling)
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- Geochemistry
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- Data processing and concluding
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- Defining ore deposit limits or mineralized zone as proposed area
- Recommending of further activities
- Reporting
3- General exploration:
It includes the performing of recommended instruction of exploration from previous stage. Usual scale is 1/5000 or more. The main jobs are:
- Geology mapping of scale 1/5000
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| - Sampling of petrography, ore microscopy paleontology, various types of chemical analysis. |
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| - Exploration openings include: Trenching, test pit digging, borehole drilling and geological surveying and logging. |
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| - Geophysical operation over the mineralized zone to define surface and subsurface trend of mineralization. |
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- Geochemical studies of rock or soil profile including:
• Network designing
• Chemical analyzing
• Data processing, preparing of anomaly maps
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• Lab scale ore processing of a representative sample
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• Final interpretation and evaluation (by GIS)
• Defining next steps of exploration at detailed stage
• Reporting
4- Detailed exploration:
This stage would be carried out according to recommended instructions which proposed at the end of general exploration stage. Usual scale varies from 1/5000 to 1/500 depends on the type and spreading of ore deposit. Maine jobs are:
• Topographic surveying and geological mapping with appropriate scale
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• Sampling for all purposes
• Instrumental studies of samples (XRD,XRF,etc.)
• Chemical analyzing
• Trenching and test pits (according to a network) and sampling
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• Doing suitable methods of geophysics depends on type of mineralization
• Geochemical evaluating to define the average grade of ore and it’s trend
• Collecting one or two representative sample(s) for technological ore processing studies
• Geological modeling and defining the shape and geometry of ore and waste
• Reserve estimation
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• Feasibility studies and economic appraisal
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• Final interpretation
• Presentation of final report and executive maps
Used softwares: Spss, Datamine, Surpac, Logplot, Auto CAD, ENVI, Geomatica, are Arc GIS
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