Characterising the AEM response of Base Metal Deposits in the Capricorn Orogen through Synthetic Modelling

Summary The Capricorn Orogen is located in central Western Australia, and comprises a series of Paleoproterozoic volcanic sedimentary basins that are prospective for base metal mineralisation. Airborne electromagnetic techniques can detect base metal deposits, however due to the thick and conductive regolith, sparse outcrop, and a lack of publicly available drill core and geophysical data, exploration for new base metal deposits is difficult within the Capricorn Orogen. We propose using available petrophysical data from the Abra Pb-Zn deposit to create a synthetic resistivity model to forward model the AEM response over Abra. The calculated AEM responses over different lithologies can be used as a proxy for understanding the ability for widely spaced AEM data to detect altered base metal rocks in regolith dominated terrains.