Geological structures that disrupt the continuity and flat-lying tabular geometry of gold and platinum orebodies cause significant production losses and compromise safety due to poor ground conditions. The CSIR, assigned by the Department of Science and Innovation and SAMERDI, has embarked on a project to address these production losses and safety compromises caused by substandard conditions in mines.

The advanced orebody knowledge project aims to optimise electrical resistance tomography technology for routine application to underground mapping of disruptive geological structures that occur ahead of mining.

The researchers will investigate whether in-mine electrical resistance tomography can be an effective reconnaissance mapping tool for imaging structural deviations from the normal flat-lying continuous reef geometry. They will assess whether recent technological advances in the technology have made its in-mine application more viable than during the PlatMine research of more than a decade ago. The researchers intend to demonstrate how data extracted from the surveys can be incorporated into a usable current risk/geological model.