Drilling and recovering drill cores are frequently the most significant cost factors in an exploration project. There are various investigations that can be performed on drill cores although some of them require the core to be intact. Conventional geological sampling techniques damage the core. Pressure relief and corrosion can also degrade such cores. Tectonic, sedimentological or petrographic queries that arise later can scarcely be answered. A view of the drill core that true to scale and the angles involved can then no longer be reconstructed.

Applying the DMT CoreScan system makes it possible to analyse cores even at a later point in time and can considerably reduce delays between drilling and analysis. In this technique high resolution, digital images of the developed drill core are produced. The individual images can be configured to form endless displays and then, after entering the necessary details, can be oriented on north. Coring losses and technical drilling details are taken into consideration. The images reflect the true angles, are at the correct scale and reproduced the actual colours.

Yet the images represent not just a conceptualised documentation of the drill cores. They permit retroactive structural and sedimentological interpretation of the strata that were drilled through. The software delivered with the CoreScan system enables all the surfaces along the core to be allocated spatially (layering, jointing, and cleavage) and enables their statistical interpretation (based on rose diagrams and sphere diagrams). Particularly when dealing with geotechnical questions – such as the determination of the RQD index – this technique offers great advantages.

But sedimentological investigations can also be carried out automatically, with mineral grains being identified and quantified based on their colour differences. This makes it possible to conduct grain size analyses and statistical investigations of grain distribution.

Investigations using DMT’s CoreScan system are the ideal supplement to our other exploration services.