Investigations of Vanadiferous Titanomagnetite Deposit using Drone Magnetic and Electrical Resistivity Surveys in Korea

Recently, the demands for energy storage minerals such as vanadium and lithium are increasing as the use of the batteries for electrical vehicles has increased. Vanadium is one of the energy storage minerals occurred in Korea. In this study, vanadium mineralized zones of the ore deposit, named as Gwanin deposit, was investigated using geophysical exploration techniques. The mineralized zone is known as vanadiferous titanomagnetite (VTM) deposit, originated from pre-cambrian igneous intrusions (850-870 m.a.), located in the northwest region of Korea. Since the vanadium has occurred along with magnetite (low electrical resistivity and high magnetic susceptibility) in the study area, geophysical exploration techniques such as magnetic and electrical resistivity surveys were employed. For magnetic exploration, the drone magnetic survey technique was used since it provides more precise and higher resolution data than any other aerial magnetic exploration techniques for relatively small and mountainous areas. In addition, electrical resistivity data were obtained from the six survey lines in the study area. 3D inversion was performed with magnetic and resistivity data. The anomaly zones of low electrical resistivities and high magnetic susceptibilities were interpreted as VTM mineralized zones from the two different inversion results. The mineralized zones were identified from the drilling investigation for overlapping locations of the anomaly zones. The results of the study have shown that magnetic and electrical resistivity techniques are very effective tools for exploring ore deposits of vanadium resource accompanied with magnetite. In the future, drone magnetic exploration technique combined with other (surface) geophysical exploration techniques would provide more effective results of precise geophysical surveys for relatively small and mountainous areas with similar ore deposit environments.