Geophysical Approach of Lead-Zinc Mineralization of the synclinorium of Verviers

Scenery

Responsible person : Maxime Evrard (Geologist, Phd student, ULg)

Supervisors : Pr. E. Pirard (ULg), Frédéric Nguyen (ULg)

Budget : Bourse F.R.I.A (Fnrs)

Context

The synclinorium of Verviers (Eastern Belgium) has produced the overwhelming majority of the Belgian Pb-Zn concentrates (more than 2 million tons) from historical time until 1936 (Roer mine) but some unexploited ore deposits are still present. Indeed, the biggest parts of the extracted ore deposits are located at low depth (max. 290m in Schmalgraf) where the Paleozoic basement outcrops. Since the end of the mining activities in the area, only very few modern prospecting activities have been achieved to discover new ore deposits and none of them above the Cenozoic cover.

Geophysical prospecting in the area have led to the “discovery” of few electromagnetic anomalies but very few of them were checked by hole drilling program.

The Pb-Zn ore deposits in Belgium are classified as Mississippi Valley Type deposits and consist mainly of Pb-Zn-Fe sulphides and oxides veins/lodes in carbonated rocks.

Objectives

The main goal of the GALeM project is to develop/adapt geophysical methods in order to better target and estimate the lead-zinc mineralization.

Three main steps are necessary to reach this objective:

-3D modeling of the local geology and few ore deposits using drill hole information if present.

– Geophysical modeling and development of inversion models

– Geophysical campaign on the field

Equipment

Three main geophysical methods are used in this project: magnetometric, gravimetric and electric will be applied on the field and then inversed and coupled with few drill hole information.