Dr. Francke will present a paper entitled “Applications and Limitations of Deep Ground Penetrating Radar to Mineral Exploration” at the 2017 Canadian Exploration Geophysical Society Symposium on March 4, 2017 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Toronto.  The paper will discuss the latest applications of deep GPR for mineral exploration, as well as address claims of extreme penetration by so-called “megawatt” GPR systems.

Groundradar will be at Booth 507 at the Exploration’17 show in Toronto, October 23-25.  In addition, Dr. Francke will be presenting a paper entitled “Realistic Expectations of GPR Performance in Mineral Exploration”, which discusses recent exaggerated claims of radar performance by “megawatt” radars and pseudo-radar technology such as ADR.

Groundradar’s South African partners are conducting a large-scale exploration project in Uganda using UltraGPR technology.   Excellent results have been obtained to depths exceeding 70 m highlighting veins, possible faults, as well as historical workings.

Groundradar is continuing to perfect a GPR system for the shallow bauxite at Weipa, Queensland.  Following from initial studies by Groundradar in the early 2000’s, radar technology has advanced sufficiently that a custom system able to penetrate through the full deposit depth with a small, portable, instrument is now possible.  The radar is linked to an RTK-DGPS for accurate positioning.

To improve on the existing Android-based datalogger employed by UltraGPR, Groundradar has developed a custom datalogger with a small wrist-mounted display.  The device can accept data from multiple radar receivers at the same time, as well as from two independent GPS receivers.  The primary GPS is a RTK-DGPS capable of positioning accuracy to within +/- 5 cm over base line distances of 10 km.  A secondary GPS provides back-up position and location beneath vegetation to within +/- 3 m.

Groundradar has been trialing a new 100 MHz monostatic GPR which is designed to be extremely small and foldable for transport.  The concept uses a real-time sampling receiver coupled with bow-tie antennas to achieve penetration to 10 m in suitable environments.  Testing has been conducted in Jamaica, Brazil and on multiple projects in Australia.

Dr. Francke conducted a half-day workshop in Perth, Australia for the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists.  The workshop discussed the history of GPR, principles of EM propagation in the earth at radar frequencies, types of GPR systems and surveys, civil infrastructure applications, mineral exploration applications as well as an extensive discussion of exaggerated GPR claims such as megawatt radars.  The module on GPR performance claims is available for viewing on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqO5LI8fiKA

Groundradar visited a gold mine in Patagonia, Argentina in August, 2016.  UltraGPR was trialed in an attempt to image vertical and near-vertical gold-bearing veins.

International Mining, published in the UK, featured UltraGPR technology in its April, 2017 issue.  The article covered UltraGPR’s advancements over consumer-grade GPR instruments used for mineral exploration.

Groundradar’s Zambian operation has been established and outfitted with suitable equipment for deep radar exploration in the region.  UltraGPR has already been successfully applied to emerald exploration projects in the region, but it is expected that other applications will be trialled, including the use of UltraGPR for geotechnical studies in Zambia and DRC.