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Gamma Ray Spectrometry

Traditional magnetic and electromagnetic techniques and applications are generally well understood by the exploration community. The gamma ray spectrometric method, however, is generally underutilized, and deserves brief description.   

Gamma ray spectrometry has been conducted since the 1960’s, evolving from a uranium-only exploration tool to a now well established, multi-element method, applied successfully worldwide to a variety of commodities in diverse geological settings. The technique passively measures the natural radioactivity of all rocks and derived materials, to characterize normal lithological variations and, of exploration significance, to fingerprint alteration of these normal radioactive element signatures by mineralizing processes. The three most abundant radioactive elements, potassium, uranium and thorium are quantitatively measured, providing major, mobile and immobile trace element (respectively) information. Thus although the technique relies on physics, interpretation must be conducted in geochemical terms. Several Canadian case histories, including those derived from the Ironmask survey, are presented in GSC Open File 3601. In short, the method can be of direct assistance to exploration for many commodities, most obviously for U and Th, but also for Sn, W, REE, Nb, Zr, Au, Ag, Hg, Co, Ni, Bi, Cu, Mo, Pb, and Zn mineralization, either because one or more of the radioactive elements is an associated trace constituent or because the mineralizing process has changed the radioactive element ratios in the surrounding environment.

Conventional geophysical methods may respond to sources at depth, such as buried magnetic intrusions, electromagnetic conductors, or density contrasts. GRS, however, is strictly a “surficial” technique, related to the radioactivity of the top 30 cm of the earth’s crust. Despite extensive glaciation throughout Canada, this limitation is less severe if one understands that the radioactive element signatures of underlying bedrock are commonly reflected in related, locally derived overburden. This holds true generally, in the Afton area, based on ground spectrometric follow-up conducted by the author. Interestingly, the same work showed that ground susceptibility measurements on the soil surface detected significant magnetic mineral content (magnetite), which interfered with results of ground magnetometer surveys conducted by Teck. For this reason, Teck staff found that the new airborne magnetic data more reliably reflected bedrock geology and structural features than the ground magnetometer surveys, and incorporated the airborne patterns in their exploration strategies.