• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.2_spc
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• pp.55-69
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• 2020

Permeability-analyzing methods commonly involve small-scale drilling, such as pumping or slug test, but it is difficult to identify overall distribution of permeability of the entire target sites due to high cost and time requirement. Spectral induced polarization (SIP) method is known to be capable of providing distributions of both the porosity and the pore size, the two major parameters determining permeability of the porous medium. The relationship between SIP variables and permeability has been studied to identify the hydrological characteristics of target sites. Kozeny-Carman formula has been improved through many experiments to better predict fluid permeability with electrical properties. In this work, the permeability prediction techniques based on SIP data were presented in accordance with the hydrogeological and electrical characteristics of a porous medium. Following the summary of the techniques, various models and related laboratory experiments were analyzed and examined. In addition, the field applicability of the prediction model was evaluated by field case analysis.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.242-246
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• 2014

Spectral induced polarization (SIP) is a useful technique, which uses electrochemical properties, for exploration of metallic sulfide minerals. Equivalent circuit analysis is commonly conducted to calculate IP parameters from SIP data. An equivalent circuit model, which indicates the SIP response of rock, has a non-uniqueness problem. For this reason, it is very important to select the proper model for accurate analysis. Thus, this study focused on suggesting a new model, which suitable for the analysis of an anomalous SIP response, such as ore. A suitability of the new model was verified by comparing it with the existing Dias model and Cole-Cole models. Analysis errors were represented as a normalized root mean square error (NRMSE). The analysis result using the Dias model was the NRMSE of 10.50% and was the NRMSE using the Cole-Cole model of 17.03%. Howerver, because the NRMSE of the new model is 0.87%, it is considered that the new model is more useful for analyzing the anomalous SIP data than other models.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.247-252
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• 2014

Gagok Mine, which is skarn deposits, includes sulfide minerals such as sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, and pyrrhotite. To explore these minerals, spectral induced polarization (SIP) is relatively effective compared to other geophysical exploration methods because there is a strong IP effect caused by electrode polarization. In the SIP, the chargeability related to sulfide mineral contents and the time constant related to the grain size of the minerals are obtained. For this reason, we aim to compare difference in the mineralized characteristics between two orebodies in the Gagok Mine by using the chargeability and the time constant. For this study, we sampled ores from the south of Wolgok orebody and the north of Sungok orebody. In order to recognize the mineralization characteristics, the metal content of the samples was measured by a potable XRF and the SIP data of the samples were acquired by using a laboratory SIP measurement system. As a result, the metals in the samples such as Pb, Zn, Cu, and Fe were detected by the portable XRF measurement. In particular, the Fe and Zn contents were far higher than the other metals. The Fe and the Zn were caused by the sphalerite and the pyrrhotite through microscopy. The Wolgok orebody had higher sulfide mineral contents than the Sungok orebody and the result corresponded with the chargeability result. However, we considered that the Sungok orebody had a larger sulfide mineral grain size than the Wolgok orebody because the time constant of the Sungok orebody was larger.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.99-108
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• 2022

Among induced polarization (IP) methods, spectral IP (SIP) uses alternating current as a transmission source to measure amplitudes and phase of complex electrical resistivity at each source frequency, which disperse with respect to source frequencies. The frequency dependence, which can be explained by a relaxation model such as Cole-Cole model or equivalent models, is analyzed to estimate SIP parameters from dispersion curves of complex resistivity employing multi-objective optimization (MOO). The estimation uses a generic algorithm to optimize two objective functions minimizing data misfits of amplitude and phase based on Cole-Cole model, which is most widely used to explain IP relaxation effects. The MOO-based estimation properly recovered Cole-Cole model parameters for synthetic examples but hardly fitted for the real laboratory measures ones, which have relatively smaller values of phases (less than about 10 mrad). Discrepancies between scales for data misfits of amplitude and phase, used as parameters of MOO method, and it is in necessity to employ other methods such as machine learning, which can deal with the discrepancies, to estimate SIP parameters from dispersion curves of complex resistivity.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.212-219
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• 2016

The development of more advanced geophysical exploration techniques is necessary because the orebodies as yet discovered are increasingly changing in characteristics from shallow/high-grade to deep/low-grade. In this work, laboratory measurement of physical properties of rock samples and a field survey and interpretation of spectral induced polarization (SIP) have been conducted in a skarn metallic deposit, Gagok mine. The purpose of this study is that the applicability of SIP in the exploration of skarn metallic deposits is verified by the comprehensive interpretation between SIP characteristics of rocks obtained from the laboratory measurements and inverted survey results from the field data. In order to understand the SIP characteristics of each lithology, the data of eighty nine rock samples utilized in the previous studies were revaluated. The field survey was carried out using frequency of 0.25 Hz along a survey line designed for intersecting lithological boundaries and evaluating mineralized zones. The mineralized rocks were more conductive (low-resistivity) and capacitive (high-chargeability or strong-phase) than other rocks. Thus, SIP can be one of the very useful tools for the mineral exploration of the skarn deposits.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.202-208
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• 2021

Induced polarization (IP) was first published in a Korean academic journal in 1973, and it was soon applied to coal and metal ore exploration. Then, in universities and research institutes, IP modeling studies using the finite element approach and experimental studies on IP responses for artificial samples were conducted. In the mid-1980s, the spectral IP (SIP) measurement module was introduced to Korea, and physical scale modeling and inversion approaches were developed. Due to the decline of the mineral resource industry, this method was not actively applied. However, the SIP method was not applied In the 1990s, IP exploration was applied in the investigation of hydrothermal deposits of sulfide minerals and bentonite mineralization zones, as well as to areas where the groundwater was contaminated by intruding seawater. In the 2000s, three-dimensional inversion of the IP approach was developed, and high-precision geophysical exploration was required to secure domestic and overseas mineral resources, so SIP experiments on rock samples and approaches for field exploration were developed. The SIP approach was proven useful for the exploration of metal deposits containing sulfide minerals by applying it to explore the mineralization zone of gold-silver deposits in the Haenam region. The IP method is considered to be effective in exploring critical minerals (lithium, cobalt, and nickel) in high-tech industries. It also is expected to be useful for environmental and geotechnical investigations.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.60-68
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• 2007

Conventional analysis of spectral induced polarization (SIP) data consists of measuring impedances over a range of frequencies, followed by spectral analysis to estimate spectral parameters. For the quantitative and accurate estimation of subsurface SIP parameter distribution, however, a sophisticated and stable inversion technique is required. In this study, we have developed a two-step inversion approach to obtain the two-dimensional distribution of SIP parameters. In the first inversion step, all the SIP data measured over a range of frequencies are simultaneously inverted, adopting cross regularisation of model complex resistivities at each frequency. The cross regularisation makes it possible to enhance the noise characteristics of the inversion by imposing a strong assumption, that complex resistivities should show similar characteristics over a range of frequencies. In numerical experiments, we could verify that our inversion approach successfully reduced inversion artefacts. As a second step, we have also developed an inversion algorithm to obtain SIP parameters based on the Cole-Cole model, in which frequency-dependent complex resistivities from the first step are inverted to obtain a two-dimensional distribution of SIP parameters. In numerical tests, the SIP parameter images showed a fairly good match with the exact model, which suggests that SIP imaging can provide a very useful subsurface image to complement resistivity.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.100-113
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• 2017

Induced polarization (IP) method is based on the measurement of a polarization effect known as overvoltage of the ground. IP techniques have been usually used to find mineral deposits, however, nowadays widely applied to hydrogeological investigations, surveys of groundwater pollution and foundation studies on construction sites. IP surveys can be classified by its source type, i.e., time-domain IP estimating chargeability, frequency-domain IP measuring frequency effect (FE), and complex resistivity (CR) and spectral IP (SIP) measuring complex resistivity. Recently, electromagnetic-based IP has been studied to avoid the requirement for spike electrodes to be placed in the ground. In order to understand IP methods in this study, we: 1) classify IP surveys by source type and measured data and illustrate their basic theories, 2) describe historical development of each IP forward modeling and inversion algorithm, and finally 3) introduce various case studies of IP measurements.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.194-201
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• 2021

Induced polarization (IP) effect is known to be caused by electrochemical phenomena at interface between minerals and pore water. Spectral induced polarization (SIP) method is an electrical survey to localize subsurface IP anomalies while injecting alternating currents of multiple frequencies into the ground. This method was effectively applied to mineral exploration of various ore deposits. Titanomagnetite ores were being produced by a mining company located in Gonamsan area, Gwanin-myeon, Pocheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Because the ores contain more than 0.4 w% vanadium, the ore deposit is called as Gwanin vanadiferous titanomagnetite (VTM) deposit. The vanadium is the most important of materials in production of vanadium redox flow batteries, which can be appropriately used for large-scale energy storage system. Systematic mineral exploration was conducted to identify presence of hidden VTM orebodies and estimate their potential resources. In geophysical exploration, laboratory geophysical measurement of rock samples is helpful to generate reliable property models from field survey data. Therefore, we performed laboratory SIP data of the rocks from the Gwanin VTM deposit to understand SIP characteristics between ores and host rocks and then demonstrate the applicability of this method for the mineral exploration. Both phase and resistivity spectra of the ores sampled from underground outcrop and drilling cores were different of those of the host rocks consisting of monzodiorite and quartz monzodiorite. Because the phase and resistivity at frequencies below 100 Hz are mainly dependent on the SIP characteristics of the rocks, we calculated mean values of the ores and the host rocks. The average phase values at 0.1 Hz were ores: -369 mrad and host rocks: -39 mrad. The average resistivity values at 0.1 Hz were ores: 16 Ωm and host rocks: 2,623 Ωm. Because the SIP characteristics of the ores were different of those of the host rocks, we considered that the SIP survey is effective for the mineral exploration in vanadiferous titanomagnetite deposits and the SIP characteristics are useful for interpreting field survey data.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.351-363
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• 2012

In order to develop the evaluation techniques for the potential sulfide ore reserves, the relationships between the modal vol.%, grain sizes and textural characteristics of the constituent minerals (e.g., sulfides, oxides and skarn minerals) and the Spectral Induced Polarization (SIP) phase differences are examined for the nine rock cores collected from the Gagok Pb-Zn skarn deposit. The Gagok Pb-Zn skarn deposit occurs mainly along the intrusive contact between the Cretaceous granitic rocks and Cambrian Myobong slate and Pungchon limestone. The nine rock cores have been grouped into three showing distinctive SIP phase differences: the highest (Group I), intermediate (Group II) and lowest (Group III). In relation with the modal vol.% of minerals, Group I is characterized by higher pyrrhotite (25-38 vol.%) and amphibole (40-55 vol.%); Group II by intermediate pyrrhotite (7-13 vol.%) and higher garnet (44-68 vol.%); and lower pyrrhotite (1-7 vol.%) and higher pyroxene (24-66 vol.%) stand for Group III. Furthermore, the grains of all the major constituent minerals become smaller from Group I (<5 mm) through Group II (<2.5 mm) to Group III (<1.6 mm). In particular, the pyrrhotite contents and their grain sizes show logarithmic correlation with the SIP phase differences, Although we present here the results solely from nine samples, the systematic interrelations especially for pyrrhotite indicate the potential ability of SIP measurements as a new mine-evaluation technique for the sulfide ore reservoir.