Cross-hole seismic survey for mineral exploration in the west Kimberley area, Western Australia

Abstract

For the past several years, The Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd (BHP) has been developing seismic techniques for coal exploration, with the object of predicting the existence of discontinuities, such as faults and dykes, ahead of mining. Several seismic methods have been considered. One method, the cross-hole seismic technique, involves generating a signal in an exploration borehole, and receiving the signals with a detector in another borehole. Tomographic imaging is then used to provide a 2-dimensional image of the structure between the boreholes.