Acquiring high resolution airborne geophysical data and recognition of new mineral exploration potential as part of a development program launched by the South African government

Abstract

The Council for Geoscience, South Africa, has embarked on a program of flying the country with high resolution - high density airborne magnetic and radiometric data to generate new exploration targets. It was during the seventies and the eighties of the past century when the existing regional coverage was flown with flight lines 1000 m apart at a nominal flight height of 120 m a.g.l. This kind of first generation data is not any longer satisfying the requirements of highest possible spatial resolution set up by the exploration and environmental industries. This demand was recently acknowledged by the South African Government and has been materialized by launching a new high resolution airborne survey program with 200 m line spacing and nominal flight height of 80 m a.g.l.