Structural analysis of drill core for mineral exploration and mining: review and workflow toward domain-based 3-D interpretation / Структурный анализ керна для разведки и добычи полезных ископаемых: обзор и рабочий процесс для трехмерной интерпретации

Structural data is vital for the understanding of the geometry and evolution of a deposit and feeds into geologic, structural, resource, and geotechnical models. Accurate models are critical for targeting, resource estimation, and geotechnical design and, if rapidly available, support real-time decisions on drilling and grade control. 

Structural drill core data add a high-resolution data set to traditional data from mapping or the structural interpretation of remote sensing and geophysical data and, therefore, add indispensable information to any integrated model.

In this paper we propose standardized workflows for data collection, review technological advances and quality control processes accelerating structural data collection from both oriented drill core and televiewer techniques, and provide an overview of structures that may be observed in drill core and discuss their significance to record for the geometry of the deposit.

Critical to the data collection process is an interpretative process that recognizes and identifies domain-based structures that ultimately are fundamental to developing 3-D structural models.