The Study of Iron Ore Prospect using 2-D Resistivity and Induced Polarization (IP) Method

Rosli Saad
Senior Lecturer (Dr.), Geophysics Section, School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; e-mail: rosli@usm.my

Imran Adli
Undergraduate Student, Geophysics Section, School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; email: im23world@hotmail.com

Ahmad Sayful Mohamad

Undergraduate Student, Geophysics Section, School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; email: sayful@ymail.com

ABSTRACT
Iron ore has very high potential to be explored in Malaysia. For this study, 2-D resistivity and induced polarization method are used. 2-D resistivity method is just a guide in order to identify the iron ore bodies whereas induced polarization method is used to differentiate well between ground water and iron ore deposits beneath ground. A total of six survey lines with total length of 2.3km conducted for the study which divided into 3 different lots, each lot consist of 2 survey lines. Pole-dipole array is used with 5m electrode spacing. The results show that area is underlain by a thick alluvium with chargeability value of 0.1-3msec which makes this area has iron ore prospect. The thickness of alluvium beneath the ground surface is up to 130m and the bedrock for this area lies at 50-130m with chargeability >5msec. The area has high potential for iron ore mining and dominated with alluvium with chargeability rate of <3msec.

KEYWORDS:

Iron ore, induced polarization, 2-D resistivity, mining

INTRODUCTION
Iron is the fourth most common element in the Earths crust after oxygen, silicon and aluminum. Most of iron in the crust is found combined with oxygen and form either iron oxide minerals such as magnetite (FeO) or hematite (FeO) and other compounds (Table 1).

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Table 1: Major iron compounds (Lindgren and Waldemar, 1933)

Name Hematite Magnetite Goethite/Limonite Siderite Chamosite Pyrite Ilmenite Formula FeO FeO HFeO FeCO (Mg,Fe,Al)Si,Al)(OH) FeS FeTiO %Fe 69.9 74.2 ~63 48.2 29.61 46.6 36.81

Iron ore can be divided into two types which are high-grade and low-grade. High-grade iron ore means the presence of iron in compound is high. It is refers to compound contains more than 60% of Fe, and probably comes from deposits of massive hematite formed by in situ enrichment of iron, most commonly a banded iron formation. Low-grade iron ore is a naturally formed ironrich rock usually contains of 25-30% of Fe. The economical iron ore that usually extracted are magnetite and hematite. The majority of iron ore deposits worldwide usually contains low-grade iron ore due to presence of other minerals mainly silica. According to United States Geological Survey (USGS), the iron ore output of 3,465,895 tons in 2010 from Malaysia is increased by more than 20% compare to a year before output which is 1,470,186 tons. This shows that demand of iron ore is rising yearly among industry players and iron ore is among the hottest commodity besides oil, gas and gold.

THEORY OF 2-D RESISTIVITY

Resistivity method is an electrical geophysical imaging method to measure subsurface apparent resistance distribution by injecting DC current into the ground using 2 current electrodes (C and C). A potential difference is measured using 2 potential electrodes (P and P). The resistivity method is used in the study of horizontal and vertical discontinuities in the electrical properties of the ground, detection of three-dimensional bodies of anomalous electrical conductivity (Kearey et al., 2002), locating subsurface cavities, mineral and groundwater exploration. Besides that, it is used extensively in borehole logging in oil exploration. Pole-dipole array used remote electrode, C which located at infinity or as far as possible perpendicular to survey lines. To get a good data, this array need forward & reverse measurement (Figure 1).

Figure 1: The forward and reverse pole-dipole array

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The main parameter measured from 2-D resistivity is resistance of rocks or minerals. The resistivity of material is defined as the resistance in ohms between the opposite faces of a unit cube of the material (Kearey et al., 2002). Every rocks and minerals will have their own resistance values. Sedimentary rocks tend to have low resistivity due to high water content and more porous compare to igneous and metamorphic rocks (Table 2).

Table 2: Resistivity values of some common rocks and soil materials.

Material Alluvium Sand Clay Groundwater(fresh) Sandstone Shale Limestone Granite Resistivity (m) 10 80 60 1000 1 100 10 100 8 4x10 20 2x10 50 4 x10 5000 1,000,000

THEORY OF INDUCED POLARIZATION (IP)

Induced polarization, IP is an electrical geophysical method to measure the effect on current flow of charge storage beneath ground. IP is the most useful geophysical methods in mineral exploration due to its ability to detect disseminated minerals. The basic concept is overvoltage effect (Figure 2). This overvoltage effect occurred due to characteristic of ground which acts as capacitor when DC current is switched off, voltage measured from 2 potential electrodes is not suddenly drop to zero but takes finite time to decay with time. After few moments, DC current is switched on and voltage measured also takes same finite time to reach a steady value. There are two main mechanisms of rock polarization which are grain polarization and membrane polarization (Milsom, 2003). Overvoltage effect is contributed by minerals which are good conductors where its magnitude depends on both magnitude of impressed voltage and mineral concentration. It is most pronounced when the mineral is disseminated throughout the host rock as the surface area available for ionicelectronic interchange is then at a maximum. The effect decreases with increasing porosity as more alternative paths become available for the more efficient ionic conduction (Kearey et al., 2002).

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Figure 2: The voltage versus time graph shows overvoltage effect when current is switched off
The main parameter measured from IP method is chargeability of minerals and rocks. Chargeability is defined as ratio of the area under the decay curve to the potential difference measured before switching the current off. True chargeability is the ratio of the over- or secondary voltage, Vs, to the observed voltage, Vo (Seigel, 1959). Chargeability of minerals and rocks are shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Chargeability of common minerals and rocks (Telford et al., 1990)

Injection current = 3s Integration time = 0.02s 1s Mineral Chargeability (ms) Pyrite 13.4 Chalcocite 13.2 Copper 12.3 Graphite 11.2 Chalcopyrite 9.4 Bornite 6.3 Galena 3.7 Magnetite 2.2 Malachite 0.2 Hematite 0.2

METHODOLOGY
Two electrical imaging methods which are 2-D resistivity and IP are chosen for this study. 2D resistivity method is used to identify the ore bodies from the resistivity value contrast whereas IP method is used to differentiate between ground water with iron ore by differentiating the chargeability of subsurface. Six survey lines were carried out with each lot contains 2 survey lines. Total length of 6 survey lines is 2.3km (Table 4). The orientation of survey lines for Lot 1

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and 2 are almost west-east while for Lot 3, the survey is about south-north. Pole-dipole array is used for the survey with 5m minimum electrode spacing. Table 4: Length of survey lines at study area
Line name L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 Lot 1 1 2 2 3 3 Distance(m) 0 400 0 400 0 400 0 400 0 400 0 300

STUDY AREA
The study area is located at north Peninsular Malaysia, 15km from Baling town and 16km from Sik town (Figure 3). Total area of studied area is 28 acres which consist of 3 lots of land. The study area is covered by old rubber estate plantation, secondary and primary jungle.

Figure 3: Orientation of survey lines and location of study area.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The resistivity results of Line 1-6 shows the area is underlain by a thick alluvium with resistivity value of 10-800m. The alluvium covers a depth of up to 130m. The alluvium can be divided into two main zones which are hard layer (800m - 1500m) and boulders or hard material (>1500m). The bedrock with resistivity value of >800m is expected to lies at 50130m depth. The IP results of Line 1-6 shows the area is suggested underlain by a thick alluvium with chargeability value of 0.1-3msec. The alluvium covers a depth up to 130m. The bedrock with chargeability value of >5msec is expected to lies between 50-130m depth (Figure 4-6). The potential area for iron exploration with estimated iron ore average grade of 20-40% is the area with chargeability value of 0.1-3msec. This chargeability range is acceptable due to chargeability of hematite and magnetite is 0.2msec and 2.2msec respectively.

Figure 4: Resistivity section (left) and IP section (right) of Lot 1

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Figure 5: Resistivity section (left) and IP section (right) of Lot 2

Figure 6: Resistivity section (left) and IP section (right) of Lot 3

CONCLUSION
Alluvium with chargeability rate of <3msec will has high potential for iron ore mining where its estimated iron ore average grade is 20-40%. For Lot 1 and Lot 3, 30-40% of the area is covered with the estimated iron ore average grade of 20-40% whereas for Lot 2, only 20-30% of the area is covered with estimated iron ore average grade of 20-40%.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank all member of Geophysics Section from Universiti Sains Malaysia whom involved in this study.

REFERENCES
1. Kearey, P., Brooks M. and Hill I. (2002) An Introduction to Geophysical Exploration, 3rd edition, Blackwell Science, pp 183-203. 2. Griffith, D. H. and Barker R.D. (1993) Two dimensional resistivity imaging and modeling in areas of complex geology, Journal of Applied Geophysics, Vol. 29, pp 211-226. 3. Hutchinson (2009) Geology of Malaysia, Geological Society of Malaysia. 4. Keller, G.V. and Frischknecht F.C. (1996) Electrical methods in geophysical prospecting, Pergamon Press Inc., Oxford. 5. Lindgren and Waldemar (1933) Mineral Deposits, 4th edition, New Tork:McGrawHill, pp 129. 6. Loke, M.H. and Barker R.D (1996) Rapid least-squares inversion of apparent resistivity pseudosection using a Quasi-Newton method, Geophysical Prospecting, Vol. 44, pp 131-152. 7. Telford, W.M. and R.F. Sheriff (1990) Applied Geophysics, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press 8. Wait, J. R. (1958) Discussions on a theoretical study of induced electrical polarization, Geophysics, Vol. 23, pp 144-154. 9. Zonge, K.L., Sauck, W.A. and Sumner, J.S. (1972) Comparison of time, frequency, and phase measurements in induced polarization, Geophysical Prospecting, Vol. 20, pp 626-648 10. Milsom, J. (2003) Applied Geophysics, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., pp83126

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