Groundradar recently visited a AngloGold project in the DRC to conduct a depth to bedrock survey for a tailings storage facility project. The survey was conducted through dense jungle vegetation over rough terrain, with excellent penetration through the laterite soil.
Groundradar celebrated its busiest year in 2010, with GPR projects completed in 23 countries on all six continents. Environments ranged from the jungles of the Congo to the Outback of Australia, in temperatures ranging from +40 C (Algeria) to -35 C (Far East Russia). As industry acceptance of long-range radar grows, Groundradar’s schedule appears even busier in 2011, with all survey teams already booked through late April.
Jan Francke has co-authored a paper entitled “Application of advanced ground penetrating radar technology for abandoned working detection at Geita Gold Mine, Tanzania”. The paper, to be presented at an AngloGold Ashanti conference in September, 2009 discusses the use of UltraGPR to image abandoned workings at an open pit operation in Tanzania. UltraGPR was able to detect a series of voids at a coverage rate of one hectare per day with one metre-spaced profiles.
Jan Francke of Groundradar and Vincent Utsi of Utsi Electronics have written a paper on advances in long-range GPR technology. A detailed background on radar theory is provided, along with case histories from a variety of mining and geotechnical applications. First Break is the leading publication in Europe serving the geoscience and engineering communities, with a circulation of over 15,000 copies monthly. The article, entitled “Advances in long-range GPR systems and their applications to mineral exploration, geotechnical and static correction problems” is featured as a Special Topic in the July 2009 issue (www.firstbreak.nl). A downloadable version of the paper is available here (©2009 EAGE).
Over a one-month period, Groundradar has conducted surveys on all six continents: Africa (Zambia), Australia, North America (Alaska), South America (Brazil), Europe (Ireland), and Asia (Turkey). These surveys have pushed the boundaries of UltraGPR technology to new applications ranging from placer beach sands to peat bogs to emerald exploration. As recent reductions in exploration budgets are implemented throughout the industry, UltraGPR technology is facing increased demand as a low-cost tool to help strategically-locate a fewer number of boreholes.
Mr. Jan Francke of Groundradar will be speaking on Monday, March 2nd at the PDAC/CAMESE Exhibitors Innovation Forum. The title of the talk will be “Recent Advances in Ultra-Deep GPR Technology”. Data examples from around the globe will be presented showing the capability of UltraGPR technology for mineral exploration applications to depths of over 100 m. The presentation will be available as a streaming video on groundradar.com shortly afterwards.