3D Seismic Feasibility Study of Olympic Dam

Olympic Dam is a world-class IOCG (iron-oxide copper gold) deposit located in South Australia and is the flagship deposit for the IOCG deposit-style. Limited seismic work has been completed on this deposit style, motivating the completion of a 3D seismic feasibility study to determine the ability of the reflection seismic method to meet imaging objectives in this complex brecciated geology. A 3D physical property model was built at 10 m resolution using representative local density variance, and 50 Hz wavefield equation based acoustic records were generated. Representative ambient and coherent noise was added to records to simulate realistic data, and processing was completed using RTM (reverse time migration). Numerous scenarios related to seismic survey design, acquisition parameters, and in-situ geology were tested, allowing investigation of the impact of IOCG breccias on seismic imaging, identification of key risks and optimised parameters that could help successfully image this geology.