From Soil to Depth: Correlating Soil Geochemistry with Intrusion Occurrence
Description: Mineral exploration can be visualised as a process of reducing geological uncertainty through the systematic acquisition, processing, and synthesis of subsurface information. The art of this systematic decision-making is governed by the ability to extract maximal information at minimal operational cost. Soil geochemical sampling, widely practiced due to its high spatial coverage and cost-efficiency, serves as a primary method for detecting surficial geochemical anomalies. However, since our targets—mineralised bodies—reside deep beneath the surface, a critical challenge lies in translating two-dimensional (2D) surface geochemical signals into predictive insights about three-dimensional (3D) subsurface architecture. This raises a key question- "To what extent can soil geochemistry inform us about the subsurface?"
This research investigates the spatial correlation between multi-element soil geochemical signatures and the grade, volume, and occurrence of underlying intrusive bodies in a region well-known for hosting high-grade Cu-Ni sulfide mineralization. By integrating surface soil geochemical datasets with available drilling data, the study seeks to quantify how geochemical indicators evolve vertically and laterally across different identified anomalies. Understanding this relationship will facilitate the development of geostatistically informed predictive models capable of delineating subsurface intrusive bodies in unexplored or sparsely drilled regions across the valley solely from surface soil geochemical datasets.
