Interpretation and modeling
It is undeniable that mineral exploration is turning into a multidisciplinary activity. RECONSULT interpretations aim at translating geophysical images and data into a more geological language enabling, in this way, all the people who are involved in a research to use geophysical information in the best way possible.
RECONSULT has been allocating large sums of its yearly investment for purchasing inversion and geophysical interpretation software and providing its staff with proper training to use it. RECONSULT brought to Brazil the best interpretation and modeling solutions available on the global mineral exploration industry with the objective of supplying its clients with world class services that contribute to successful exploration projects.
Improving computer processing capability made the application of geophysical inversions more important for exploration projects. Inversion processes are useful to define the depth, coordinates and geometry of bodies that generate observable anomalies. They quantify geophysical observations in terms of physical property distributions. An important aspect of modern inversion is that it enables non-specialists to understand and use geophysical information.
Modeling and inversion of gravity and magnetic data
RECONSULT uses the Oasis Montaj from Geosoft Inc as its platform to process gravity and magnetic images. In this software, special transformed field images are elaborated such as low latitude reduced to the pole filter and the fractional derivative ternary distribution, aiming at creating a plan view interpretation that highlights all the geological information that is presented in the geophysical datasets. To estimate the spatial positioning (mainly the depth) and the geometry of the magnetic and/or dense sources RECONSULT uses the ModelVision Pro and UBC-GIF software that were developed in Australia and Canada, respectively. Both programs invert 3D data using different mathematical approaches. The ModelVision uses prismatic bodies with constant physical properties that differ them from the background. The UBC works with tridimensional meshes that are associated to a specific physical property for each voxel making it possible to have changes in the physical properties of an anomalous body.
Modeling and inversion of electromagnetic data
Based on the same concepts that underlie magnetic and gravity guide interpretation, RECONSULT has been investing in implementing world class services in electromagnetic (EM) interpretation over the past ten years. Currently, RECONSULT meets an old demand of the Brazilian mineral exploration industry, the lack of EM specialists. RECONSULT became a reference in using the Maxwell software that inverts EM data, mainly in time domain, acquired in holes (borehole EM technical), over the surface and in airborne systems, such as the VTEM and the HeliGEOTEM, both in moving wing platform. Some of RECONSULT’s achievements in EM interpretation are described in academic papers that report cases of sulphide rich and conductive bodies in depths frequently bellow 100 metres that were successfully intercepted after the company conducted inversion processes using Maxwell.
Modeling and inversion of induced polarization and resistivity data
RECONSULT understands that the key to interpreting induced polarization (IP) and resistivity (RES) is the integration of these data with other indirect information, such as airborne geophysics, geochemistry results and superficial geology data. RECONSULT uses the TS2DIP software by Zonge to model IP and RES information. The resultant models are integrated with other sources of information in plan and section views. When the IP and RES data are acquired in a regular grid, the inversion results are interpolated in a tridimensional way through voxels to perform 3D integration, especially when there are historical drillholes that may have not tested the detected polarisable bodies correctly.