Chapter 7: Structural Analysis of Drill Core for Mineral Exploration and Mining: Review and Workflow Toward Domain-Based 3-D Interpretation

Abstract

Structural data is vital for the understanding of the geometry and evolution of a deposit and feeds into geologic, structural, resource, and geotechnical models. Accurate models are critical for targeting, resource estimation, and geotechnical design and, if rapidly available, support real-time decisions on drilling and grade control. Structural drill core data add a high-resolution data set to traditional data from mapping or the structural interpretation of remote sensing and geophysical data and, therefore, add indispensable information to any integrated model. In this paper we propose standardized workflows for data collection, review technological advances and quality control processes accelerating structural data collection from both oriented drill core and televiewer techniques, and provide an overview of structures that may be observed in drill core and discuss their significance to record for the geometry of the deposit. Critical to the data collection process is an interpretative process that recognizes and identifies domain-based structures that ultimately are fundamental to developing 3-D structural models.

Combined X-Ray Computed Tomography and X-Ray Fluorescence Drill Core Scanning for 3-D Rock and Ore Characterization: Implications for the Lovisa Stratiform Zn-Pb Deposit and Its Structural Setting, Bergslagen, Sweden

“…During the last decades, several fast and nondestructive techniques for extracting various data from rock samples and drill cores have emerged. In this context, geologic structures in drill core can be measured with the assistance of modern handheld devices, using, for example, laser alignment, although these typically exclude structures that occur within the core, such as lineations and fold hinges (e.g., Kramer-Bernhard et al, 2020). X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and hyperspectral infrared scanning are used to provide 2-D elemental and mineral maps of rock surfaces, respectively (e.g., Kruse et al, 2012;Wiedenbeck, 2013;Sjöqvist et al, 2015;Young et al, 2016;Mathieu et al, 2017;Ryan et al, 2018).…”