Possibilities of Magnetotelluric Methods in Geophysical
Exploration for Ore Minerals

Iv. M. Varentsov^a, V. A. Kulikov^b,c, A. G. Yakovlev^b,c, and D. V. Yakovlev^c

^a Geoelectromagnetic Research Centre of the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Troitsk, Moscow, 142190 Russia

e-mail: ivan_varentsov@mail.ru

^b Faculty of Geology, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119991 Russia

e-mail: vic@nw-geophysics.ru

^c OOO Nord-West, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: mail@nw-geophysics.ru

Received May 21, 2012

Abstract—In the past decade, the applications of magnetotelluric method in the electric prospecting for ore
bodies have been rapidly progressing. In the present work, we summarize the first results on this way. We dis-
cuss the specificity of the geoelectrical models in the problems of mining prospecting for ore bodies. The state-
of-the-art capabilities of the method, which rely on the synchronous observation systems and the procedure of
joint inversion of magnetotelluric and magnetovariational responses, are considered in the context of ore min-
eral exploration. The results of modeling a typical mining audio-magnetotelluric survey for ore minerals are
presented. On the basis of these simulations and the data provided by in-situ soundings, the efficient approaches
to the processing, analysis, and inversion of these data are discussed and illustrated. The future trends in mag-
netotellurics as applied to the mining prospecting are analyzed.

Keywords: orebody geophysics, electric prospecting, magnetotelluric and magnetovariational sounding, syn-
chronous observation systems, transfer operators of electromagnetic field, inverse problems

DOI: 10.1134/S1069351313030178

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