Construction Aggregate Mining: Sand & Gravel

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Background

In 1995, we helped a company locate sand and gravel volumes in San Marcos, Texas. This material can be mined and sold for construction purposes.

Process

The Sting R1 with 47 Dual-Mode Swift electrodes was spaced three meters apart. Two parallel lines were collected eight meters apart to identify conductive silt/clay/shale and resistive sand/gravel areas.

Results

Sand and gravel zones and the shale bedrock surface were located to help estimate sand and gravel volumes. Additionally, the imaging identified the location of groundwater. In some cases,  where sand and gravel volumes are found make for productive water aquifers, too.

Benefits & Similar Applications

You can use this method to locate bulk aggregate material—rocks, gravel, sand, etc.—for construction use. In this case, our client could sell the the mined aggregate material for profit. Additionally, sand/gravel are often associated with groundwater aquifers giving the method an added benefit of locating water in any application underground.

Products Used

• We have retired the instrument used in this example, the Sting R1. We recommend the SuperSting™ Wi-Fi for surveys like this because it expedites the survey (you can collect and record data up to 15 times faster than with the Sting R1).

• EarthImager™ 3D

• EarthImager™ 2D