Geophysical Delineation of Barite-Galena Mineralization Using Coupled Electrical Resistivity (ER) and Induced Polarization (IP) Techniques. A Case Study of Iyamitet, Cross River State, South-South, Nigeria

Abstract

A combined Electrical Resistivity (ER) and Induced Polarization (IP) techniques were carried out at Iyamitet, Cross-River State Nigeria with the aim of mapping the Barite-Galena mineralization zone within the area. Five traverses were established in orthogonal directions with length of 100 m. The traverses were established in grid format for better coverage of the study area and Dipole-Dipole electrode configuration was adopted for the data acquisition for both ER and IP. Res2Dinvx software was employed for the joint inversion of the data and the resulting 2D resistivity and chargeability images of the subsurface were interpreted qualitatively and semi-quantitatively to locate the mineralized zone. The result of the investigation revealed that the resistivity values of the suspected mineralized zones fall between 1023 ohm-m to 377599 ohm-m and the chargeability falls between 232 msec and 727 msec. The depth to the top of some of the mineralized zones is as shallow as 1.25 m and as deep as 19.8 m in other places. The results of the investigation have indicated the presence of the Barite-Galena ore within the area and this manifested as high resistivity and high chargeability zones along the traverses. The result of this investigation highlights the efficiency of combined geophysical techniques in locating mineralized zones in a basement area.