IPRAMA: INDUCED POLARIZATION FOR RAW MATERIALS
type: CreativeWork
description: As the global economy transitions to cleaner energy, the ability to accurately map mineral deposits has become a key challenge to achieve decarbonization goals. The development of innovative and non-invasive exploration methods is essential to ensure the sustainable exploitation of natural resources, minimizing environmental impact and respecting local communities. Among the useful indirect techniques that can be applied to describe the ground physical properties, this thesis focuses on the Airborne Induced Polarization (AIP) method. Electromagnetic (EM) methods—both airborne (AEM) and ground-based—are known to be sensitive to induced polarization (IP) effects when surveying chargeable grounds. Although the relevance of IP phenomena in EM data has been demonstrated in numerous studies, these effects are frequently overlooked in standard exploration workflows. This is largely due to the challenges associated with recognizing IP signatures in EM data space and the complexities involved in incorporating them into inversion frameworks. The modelling of IP effects in EM data often leads to non-unique solutions which increase the model ambiguity and decrease its interpretability: the relationship to both geology and galvanic chargeability become unclear, and the complexity of IP modelling is not repaid. This thesis investigates various aspects of airborne induced polarization, addressing both methodological challenges and applied case studies across multiple spatial scales. These include a continental-scale study using fixed-wing AEM systems in Australia, a mine-scale investigation in Spain, and a greenfield exploration program in Portugal. In the latter, AIP-derived anomalies identified from airborne data informed the design and execution of targeted ground-based follow-up surveys. Together, these case studies illustrate the potential of AIP methods to enhance subsurface characterization in chargeable terrains and contribute to more effective mineral exploration strategi…
abstract: As the global economy transitions to cleaner energy, the ability to accurately map mineral deposits has become a key challenge to achieve decarbonization goals. The development of innovative and non-invasive exploration methods is essential to ensure the sustainable exploitation of natural resources, minimizing environmental impact and respecting local communities. Among the useful indirect techniques that can be applied to describe the ground physical properties, this thesis focuses on the Airborne Induced Polarization (AIP) method. Electromagnetic (EM) methods—both airborne (AEM) and ground-based—are known to be sensitive to induced polarization (IP) effects when surveying chargeable grounds. Although the relevance of IP phenomena in EM data has been demonstrated in numerous studies, these effects are frequently overlooked in standard exploration workflows. This is largely due to the challenges associated with recognizing IP signatures in EM data space and the complexities involved in incorporating them into inversion frameworks. The modelling of IP effects in EM data often leads to non-unique solutions which increase the model ambiguity and decrease its interpretability: the relationship to both geology and galvanic chargeability become unclear, and the complexity of IP modelling is not repaid. This thesis investigates various aspects of airborne induced polarization, addressing both methodological challenges and applied case studies across multiple spatial scales. These include a continental-scale study using fixed-wing AEM systems in Australia, a mine-scale investigation in Spain, and a greenfield exploration program in Portugal. In the latter, AIP-derived anomalies identified from airborne data informed the design and execution of targeted ground-based follow-up surveys. Together, these case studies illustrate the potential of AIP methods to enhance subsurface characterization in chargeable terrains and contribute to more effective mineral exploration strategi…
author: DAUTI, FRANCESCO
language: eng
keywords: Airborne Induced Polarization, Airborne Electromagnetic, Joint inversion, Mineral Exploration, Critical Raw Material, Green Transition, Settore GEOS-04/B - Geofisica applicata
date published: 2025-06-25
date modified: 2026-07-27T20:19:10Z
provider: Università degli Studi di Milano
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Università degli Studi di Milano

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/1172046

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.13130/dauti-francesco_phd2025-06-25