Benchmark of multiple geophysics tools to study the voids in the upper
levels of a decommissioned iron mine
Abstract
Absorption muon imaging is a technique that can measure density
variations underground down to a few hundred meters. Then, it can prove
to be useful in a mining environment: to help assess the ore bodies
volumes and/or to monitor the underground for natural hazards that can
happen at the surface because of the mining exploitation. Here we report
the result of an experiment designed to test the capabilities and
resolution power of a cosmic muon measurement in a mining environment
compared to other standard geophysics tools: gravimetry and seismic
studies. It consists of three independent measurement of a subset of the
decommissioned iron mine of May-sur-Orne (France). The first one was
made using a 50x50cm² micromegas based muon telescope installed at the
deepest non-submerged level (50m underground) during 3 months. The
second one is a gravimetry survey of the surface area inside the muon
telescope acceptance cone. And the third one is a study of refracted and
reflected seismic waves along a single line above the muon telescope
location. The investigation volume was chosen because of the presence of
surface risks (neighborhood), the unknown of some uncharted volume and
the presence of an ore storage volume of several meter cubed that was
used during the mine exploitation and which filling state is unknown.
The data analysis showed that while muon tomography is able to detect
the negative density anomaly of the storage volume, the gravimetry
measurement is not sensible to it. However, the seismic study was able
to detect the volume as well and its location and extension is
compatible with the muon measurement.