The Phoenix geophysical survey crew members give a "thumbs up", ready to start their day's work in Canada's north.
A marten skulks behind a tree, checking on the survey crew; clever, fierce hunters, martens are prized for their valuable fur.
Geophysicist Yann Avram uses a compass to align equipment.
Prospector Jean worked with the crew
A crew member fishes for dinner through the ice; the crew's cabins are in background
On the last day of the survey the crew moves out, passing the first open water of spring breakup
Mining companies are increasingly using MT/AMT to explore for metallic mineral deposits too deep to be detected with other EM techniques.
The photographs here illustrate typical winter field work in northern Canada; they were taken in early 2005 during a survey for a mining company client.
The many advantages of MT/AMT surbeys include the following :
- the depth of investigation is 2km or more, four to five time greater than other surface or airborne EM techniques
- the equipment is light weight and portable
- there is negligible impact on the environment
- no man-made energy source is needed
- the data provides information about anisotropy, dimensionality (1-D, 2-D or 3-D) and distance/direction to offline anomalies
- the data is independent of source-sensor-target relative orientation
- MT/AMT can be used in winter or summer, important because some areas are accessible during only one of these seasons
