Application prospects of the seismic method as discussed from the experimental effects of the method for metal exploration

Abstract：Due to the complexity of geological structures in metallic ore areas, seismic techniques applied in metal exploration are still in the experimental stage. Through several years of deep-going experiments, not only major progress in seismic techniques have been made, but pronounced positive geological results have also been obtained in using the seismic method to detect ore-controlling structures and look for local inhomogeneous bodies related to buried metallic ore deposits. The authors summarize some results of seismic and geological experiments obtained in the seismic experimental study of metal exploration and consider that the seismic reflection method can yield good results in the exploration for sedimentary stratabound ore deposits and ore-controlling structure and that the scattering wave method is useful for the study of subsurface local inhomogeneous bodies related to orebodies and the determination of the location of hidden orebodies as well. On that basis, the prospects of application of seismic methods in looking for buried metal deposits at depth are discussed.