Case Study: Ivanhoe Mines identifies new Platreef resources with Seequent’s constrained inversion models

Constrained inversion models identify new resources at Ivanhoe’s Platreef deposit

Ivanhoe Mines needed a way to model the deep extensions of its Platreef deposit in South Africa despite strong remanent magnetization that made gravity and magnetic data difficult to interpret at depth. Working with Seequent and its Geosoft VOXI Magnetization Vector Inversion (MVI) software, the team sought to integrate aeromagnetic data, drill-hole physical property measurements, and regional geology to better predict the reef’s down-dip extent.

Seequent’s VOXI MVI solution removed the need to assume magnetization was aligned with Earth’s field, allowing the team to account for remanence and build more accurate 3D inversion models. The models predicted deep and shallow extensions of the reef that were confirmed by drilling: one step-out hole hit the contact and reef within 200 meters of the predicted 1,300-meter depth, and later drilling intersected the contact and mineralization within about 50 meters of predicted depth in multiple holes, all of which hit mineralization.

Ivanhoe Mines

David Broughton

Executive Vice President Exploration