The exploration of deposits usually requires extensive geophysical investigations. Depending on the raw material and on , different geophysical measuring methods are suitable. The explorations can take place on land as well as on water. According to type of deposit and projected budget, the investigations are carried out along individual profiles or over a wide area. The results are processed in two or three dimensions. In general, geoelectrics, electromagnetics, magnetics and seismics are used for larger campaigns.

Frequent applications – even for small-scale deposits – are associated with gravel mining, while ore, oil and natural gas deposits often require much larger exploration campaigns.

The team of Dr. Donié Geo-Consult GmbH has already explored numerous gravel deposits in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Most of the investigations took place on land, but some also on water. An example is shown in the picture above right. Here, geophysical investigations were carried out on a lake using geoelectrics, the data were evaluated in two and three dimensions and a geological model of the minig area was created. An essential premise was the sufficiently large number of calibration boreholes. Our work finally resulted in cubatures for the individual material types (e.g. gravel, gravel-sand, sand, etc.). This way, information from drillings could be significantly improved with additional continuous information from geophysical measurements.