An overview of vis-nir-swir field spectroscopy - Spectral International

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________________________________________________________________ Ivanhoe, Kennecott, Lac, La Coipa, Linear Gold, Mantos Blancos, Mantos Oro, Metallica, Metallic Ventures, Mineral Mapping, Minera Paramount, Minnova, Newcrest, Newmont Exploration, Newmont Gold, New Sleeper, Noranda, Normandy Posieden, North, Nova Gold, Oro Candente, Oro Peru, Penoles, Phelps Dodge, Placer Dome, QVX, Rio Tinto, Romarco, Santa Fe, Southern Peru Copper, Teck-Cominco, WMC, and Western States. Many more companies have either rented instruments or used consultants who have done spectral analysis for them. The uranium companies are where spectroscopy makes a major contribution to drill target and core logging of alteration to vector to mineralization. The alteration minerals and clays occur in unique relationships to ore and spectroscopy is the major way to define these relationships and establish vectors. The companies include Areva, Cameco, Can-Alaska, Forum Uranium, Jabiru, JNR, Triex, Uranium City, Uravan, Uex. There are over 30 instruments in Canada and Australia dedicated to this task alone. DeBeers funded the original PIMA development and then used close to 20 PIMAs to characterize alteration in kimberlite pipes globally. G-10 garnets, as diamond indicators, have a distinctive chrome feature in the visible, easily analyzed by the Terraspec. The alteration model for Pierina was done with the PIMA. Newmont at Yanacocha evolved from PIMA core logging into using the Terraspec to define their alteration and drill taregets. Novagold used the FieldSpec Pro (FR) at Donlin Creek, as did Barrick at Alta Chicama and Ivanhoe at Oyu Tolgoi. It goes on with Lac and Barrick in the El Indio belt where they redefined alteration and mineralization episodes finding major advanced argillic alteration throughout the belt; Placer Dome logged core at La Coipa. At Valedaro, in Argentina, no hole was drilled before adjoining holes had been checked with the spectrometer as they had discovered a unique silica signature associated with gold zones. At Tres Cruces in Peru, Oro Peru defined mineralized zones and degrees of alteration using the presence of ammonia in illite or buddingtonite. Noranda and Rio Tinto use their FR's for remote sensing ground truth, as has Buenaventura, Newmont, Teck-Cominco, WMC and Barrick.. Perhaps the greatest use for spectroscopy is in core logging. One of the major success stories, as mentioned, is in the unconformity uranium deposits where companies have to drill blind targets through glacial till and sandstone down through the unconformity, where the ore lies, to the basement. The alteration mineralogy zoning is very diagnostic relative to proximity to ore. The spectrometers are the most rapid, economic way to vector to the ore bodies and define them. Reflectance spectroscopy has become a robust method, routinely used in a wide variety of applications in the industry, 60
________________________________________________________________ Acknowledgements This paper is dedicated to all those field geologists who persevered from PIMA to Terraspec; who collected thousands of spectra and applied their new found knowledge to better understanding their deposits and alteration systems. I acknowledge all of you for your individual and collective contributions to this wonderful discipline of field spectroscopy. A special acknowledgement to Graham Hunt, who gave me the first taste of reflectance spectroscopy years ago at the U.S. Geological Survey. Also to Alexander F.H. Goetz, who has not only given me knowledge and opportunity, but taught me a great deal about instrumentation and was supportive in the creation of the fabulous TerraSpec. And to the Team of engineers, scientists, and technical support people at Analytical Spectral Devices who created the Terraspec. Acknowledgement as well to Terry Cocks of Australia, who with his CSIRO colleagues, created the PIMA, the first innovative step in this mini-revolution. Another special salute to Anne Thompson, whose tireless and absolutely top notch efforts through the years has made reflectance spectroscopy an accepted analytical tool for all those Canadian Juniors doing very grassroots exploration, pioneers in their own rights. The reader also is referred to the paper “Alteration Mapping in Exploration: Application of Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) Spectroscopy”, by Anne J.B. Thompson. Phoebe L. Hauff and Audrey Robitaille, SEG Newsletter, 1999, Number 39, published by the Society of Economic Geologists, Littleton, Colorado. REFRENCES Andrade, N., 2002, Geology of the Cigar Lake uranium deposit; in Andrade, N., Breton, G., Jefferson, C.W., Thomas, D.J. Tourigny, G., Wilson, W., and Yeo, G.M., eds., The Eastern Athabasca Basin and its uranium deposits, Field Trip A-1 Guidebook: Geological Association of Canada and Mineralogical Association of Canada, Saskatoon, May 24-26, 2002, p. 53- 72. Barton, M.D., and Johnson, D.A., 1996, Evaporitic-source model for igneousrelated Fe-oxide-(REE-Cu-Au-U) mineralization: Geology, v. 24, p. 259- 262. 61
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