Highlights of our service

1. Multiple-sensors: Our physical properties lab focusses on attention to detail. Our magnetic susceptibility and inductive conductivity measurements are taken with multiple sensors to assure accuracy.

2. Vacuum Impregnation Chamber: Rocks in-situ in the ground are often saturated with pore fluids. The electrical properties of these fluids are largely controlled by the solutes in the ground water that fills the pore-space. When the rock is extracted from the ground, the pore fluid evaporates, leaving the solutes behind.

We use a vacuum impregnation chamber to place the samples under strong vacuum pressure and force distilled water back into the pore space, recreating the same electrical properties in the rock that it would have had while it was in the ground. This is a big step in accurately determining how your rocks will respond to IP-Resistivity surveys, which is particularly important in base and precious metals exploration.

3. Customized Solutions: We offer this service on rock sample groups of all sizes. Whether it’s a single hand-sample found in the field which you are curious as to its geophysical signature, or you have an established ore-body and want a full statistically-robust characterization of the ore-body based on 100 samples or more, we have a well defined approach for your job.

what do we test?

1. Electromagnetic conductivity is a measure of how a rock responds to a magnetic inducing field. Rock conductivities can vary over may orders of magnitude and these strong contrasts can make electromagnetics an excellent tool for mapping lithologies. Electromagnetic measurements are commonly used for many types of environment, geotechnical, ground water and mineral exploration applications.

2. Electrical resistivity and chargeability are property contrasts commonly used in conjunction to detect mineral deposits exhibiting disseminations of sulphide minerals, as well as oxides and clays.

3. Density is a property contrast used to detect magmatic intrusions, large heavy sulphide deposits, alteration zones and to map basement depths.

4. Magnetic susceptibility Most rocks exhibit some sort of magnetic signature. Magnetic data is the most-used geophysical data type in mineral exploration and is extremely useful for mapping lithologies under cover.

5. Density and Porosity Accurate understanding of rock density is a key element of rock mechanics. The density can vary significantly above and below the water table, depending on porosity. This measurement is performed by saturating the sample’s pore space with water until the mass stabilizes, to determine saturated density. The sample is then dried in our desiccation chamber and the dry density is calculated. The difference between these two values is used to estimate the connected porosity of the sample.

What is PETROPHYSICS ?

Petrophysics is the study of the physical properties of earth materials. It is the basis upon which all geophysical prospecting is designed.

The various geophysical exploration methods work by detecting contrasts in rock physical properties. Knowing what contrasts to expect is required for informed planning of geophysical surveys.

WHY do we need it?

Knowing the physical property contrasts of the rocks on your property will help you decide which geophysical methods will best answer your exploration questions.

Knowing your physical properties will help to optimize survey parameters. Example: even if you know your target is a good EM target, knowing its conductivity will help to define survey frequency and know which systems will see it best.

Knowing the physical properties of your rocks will allow for more accurate inversion and modelling results.

physical rock properties testing. knowledge is power.

The biggest mistake that most explorers make when planning their geophysical strategy is not understanding the sources of its geophysical signature.

Physical properties testing is the foundation upon which a solid geophysical strategy is developed. It is the least expensive and yet most critical step in the process.

A lack of understanding of your target’s properties and the properties of surrounding lithologies can lead to a great deal of lost money and time. Physical properties are as fundamental as geochemistry in developing your exploration strategy.

EarthEx in-house physical properties testing.
How do I proceed?

1. The best approach is to send us samples (hand samples or half/quarter cores) of your target mineralization with at least two representative samples of each mineralization style/texture/grade/tenor.

2. In addition to this it is recommended to send samples representing the stratigraphy in your exploration property. Knowing the properties of the country rocks is integral to knowing what contrast your target has, as well as what other lithologies might produce non-economic targets in the geophysics.

3. We can also use your physical properties to invert or re-invert your existing geophysical data with known properties as a constraint, leading to much more geologically reasonable and accurate models.

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