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Raw Materials

Understanding raw materials

Raw materials are natural resources extracted from the Earth that serve as essential inputs for producing goods and services. These resources include:

  • Minerals: Precious and base metals such as gold, copper, iron, and lithium, critical for industries like electronics, manufacturing, and energy storage.
  • Energy resources: Coal, uranium, and geothermal reservoirs that fuel energy production and support global power needs.
  • Industrial materials: Sand, gravel, and limestone used in construction, infrastructure, and manufacturing processes.

Extracting and managing these resources efficiently requires a deep understanding of the subsurface environment. Advanced geophysical tools like tTEM and sTEM are vital for:

  • Mapping resource-rich zones with high precision to minimize exploratory drilling.
  • Identifying geological features that indicate mineral deposits or energy reserves.
  • Ensuring sustainable extraction practices by reducing environmental impact and waste.

With tools like tTEM and sTEM, industries can enhance exploration success rates, reduce costs, and support the responsible use of Earth’s raw materials to meet growing global demands.

Geophysics for raw materials

Discover how geophysical methods improve accuracy and efficiency in finding valuable raw materials

Resource Identification

Geophysical methods help locate economically viable deposits of raw materials that are critical for industries, construction, and energy production. These techniques allow for precise mapping of mineral and resource-rich areas, reducing the reliance on trial and error exploration.

Sustainable Exploration

Geophysical methods contribute to minimizing the environmental impact of resource extraction. By using non-invasive techniques to gather data, they help guide exploration efforts to target only the most promising areas, reducing disturbance to surrounding ecosystems.

Cost and Time Efficiency

Geophysical exploration is more cost-effective and time-efficient than traditional methods like drilling. By targeting high-potential zones based on geophysical data, companies can avoid unnecessary drilling and focus their resources on areas with the highest likelihood of containing valuable raw materials.

Raw materials exploration

Explore how TEMcompany’s instruments can help deliver precision and efficiency when scanning for raw material deposits.

Shallow Resource Mapping

tTEM is excellent for quickly and efficiently mapping the shallow subsurface, which is crucial when exploring near-surface raw materials like sand, gravel, or shallow ore deposits. It can help identify areas with conductive anomalies, which may indicate the presence of certain raw materials such as clays, salts, or shallow mineral deposits.

Large Coverage Area

One of the key strengths of tTEM is its ability to cover large areas rapidly. When exploring potential raw material deposits over expansive areas, tTEM can provide initial insights into the distribution and extent of materials, helping to narrow down areas for more detailed exploration or drilling. This is particularly useful for assessing aggregate deposits or shallow mineral reserves.

Identification of Conductive Materials

tTEM works by detecting variations in electrical conductivity in the ground, which can help to identify mineral deposits that are conductive, such as base metals or minerals with metallic content. This helps target areas where further exploration might be needed to evaluate the economic viability of raw material extraction.

Cost Effective for Initial Surveys

tTEM is a cost-effective tool for preliminary exploration as it provides valuable data on subsurface conditions and helps prioritize locations for more detailed exploration or drilling. It’s a great first step in raw materials exploration, allowing companies to quickly assess the potential of a large area without the cost and time associated with drilling.

High Resolution Detection

sTEM and tTEM offer detailed, high-resolution data. They are ideal for localized exploration and fine-scale mapping of raw material deposits. For instance, sTEM can map areas with specific mineral deposits, allowing geologists to identify zones where raw materials such as copper, gold, or other valuable minerals are concentrated.

Deeper Exploration

While tTEM is great for shallow mapping, sTEM can be used for deeper investigations to explore deep ore deposits or mineral-rich zones at greater depths. This is particularly useful when raw materials are located in deeper geological formations, such as deep copper deposits or metallic ores.

Enhanced Sensitivity for Mineral Exploration

sTEM provides a high level of sensitivity and precision in detecting resistivity contrasts in the subsurface. This makes it ideal for exploring and mapping low-resistivity materials, such as certain mineral veins or conductive ore bodies, which might not be detectable with lower-resolution methods.

Targeted Exploration for Specific Raw Materials

sTEM is suited for identifying mineralization patterns and depth variations within a localized area, enabling exploration teams to focus their efforts on the most promising zones.

Insight from research papers

Innovative Research in Applied Geophysics

Characterizing the diverse hydrogeology underlying rivers and estuaries using new floating transient electromagnetic methodology (2020)

Efficient imaging of hydrological units below lakes and fjords with a floating, transient electromagnetic (FloaTEM) system (2022)

High resolution 3D subsurface mapping using a towed transient electromagnetic system - tTEM: case studies (2020)

FROM GROUNDWATER TO PERMAFROST

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