Enhanced Weathering and Oxidation Modelling in Coals by Integration of ATEM Results with Standard Coal Geoscience Data at Peak Downs Mine, Queensland, Australia

Geological processes of alteration such as oxidation and weathering lead to coal quality degradation. In the context of coal mining, this is significant because engineers must optimise mine plan designs with respect to waste rock and marketable coal. Airborne Transient Electromagnetic Methods (ATEM) can be useful in demarcating a coal seam's Limit of Oxidation (LOX) and add confidence to the related thickness of a weathered zone. This study demonstrates an attempt at using state of the art, high resolution ATEM data acquired over the Peak Downs Mine to improve upon the positioning of LOX `lines', which can be notoriously difficult to model acutely where the coal seams are sub-parallel to the base of weathering estimate. The interpretation techniques applied throughout this study focus on using ATEM results visualized as X and Z component data profiles, compared to laterally constrained conductivity-depth inversions and borehole data. Such studies may enable geoscientists to better inform mine planning and development decisions.