Lalor Project – Gold
HeliSAM has demonstrated the ability to detect and characterize the Lalor VMS deposit using airborne acquisition and an inductive ground loop. It is a rapid, cost effective, deep search technology.
SITUATION
Dias performed a trial survey over Hudbay’s Lalor deposit near Snow Lake, Manitoba, Canada.
The deposit was discovered in 2007 using a Crone EM system with large, multi-turn loops and long stack times. The deposit lies 700m – 1000m below the surface. The deposit is made up of primarily gold, zinc and copper. As of January 2014, the proven base metal resource was 1,332,000 tonnes with a probable resource exceeding 10,000,000 tonnes.
Hudbay have made the deposit available to geophysical contractors to survey in order to improve understanding of the deposit and to evaluate technologies for use in deep exploration.
The HeliSAM data acquisition system utilized comprised of a Gap GeoPhysics TM-7 SAM Receiver, Cesium magnetometer towed bird (B-Field), Hemisphere R320 GPS, laser altimeter and base station magnetometer. The transmitter system was a Phoenix TXU-30 that was generously provided by Hudbay.
HeliSAM CONCLUSIONS
HeliSAM easily detected Lalor using an inductive loop source with a low base frequency and a total field airborne receiver.
HeliSAM combines the production rate of airborne surveys with detection capabilities similar to a ground based system.
HeliSAM is more cost effective than a ground survey of similar size and has a smaller environmental impact as survey lines do not need to be cut. HeliSAM is an ideal tool for regional exploration as up to 18 sq km of surveying can be completed in a single day.
This system is a huge step forward for deep, rapid, airborne exploration.
A selection of TFEM Channels with the ore body outlined in yellow and the survey loop outlined in black. With the progression of channels there is a clear correlation between the observed anomaly and the known mineralization. The magnetics data set is also included for reference.
