The ground vs. airborne survey debate is old and well-documented for strengths and weaknesses. But now, in the case of New Nadina’s porphyry copper discovery led by Mira Geoscience’s Peter Kowalczyk, mining exploration teams are told, “The two work very well together to find big, deep porphyry deposits.”
Both ZTEM (airborne survey) and Titan 24 (ground geophysical survey) were used on New Nadina’s Silver Queen property in attempt to extend the life of the mining site . The surveys intended to pinpoint a deep porphyry copper target system for drilling.
“Using both ZTEM and Titan 24 in combination is a very good exploration strategy,” says Kowalczyk. An exploration team’s goal is to get the most well defined target before drilling. At Silver Queen, after ZTEM went over the property, it was apparent that additional work was required on the ground.
The Titan 24 IP (Induced Polarisation) data allowed the New Nadina exploration team to avoid drilling deep, expensive holes by more clearly defining the anomaly target.
Quantec Shows You Where To Mine Next
“Titan 24’s ground geophysics adds a great deal of data and gives much greater confidence to site drillholes. The Titan24 IP data was used to target the drillholes, and the Titan24 MT [Magnetotelluric Survey] data provided strong evidence that the mineralizing system extended to depth,” says Kowalczyk.
Sure enough, New Nadina’s Silver Queen deep drill results came back on par with Titan 24’s mapping and interpretation , and there was great praise for Quantec’s ground geophysics exploration. If the giant porphyry had not been mapped by Titan 24’s ground geophysical survey, the team would not have drilled down far enough to pass through the fault to discover a deposit lay hidden below.
“Without the Titan24 IP anomaly, the New Nadina exploration team would not have had a well defined target at depth, and it is unlikely they would have drilled through the fault,” said the Mira geophysicist.