Country-wide exploration for graphite- and sulphide-rich black shales with airborne geophysics and petrophysical and geochemical studies

Black shales host critical raw materials such as graphite and cobalt and occur in the vicinity of many types of sulphide deposits. We report the procedure for country-wide mapping of graphite- and sulphide-rich rocks and the chemical and petrophysical data of 319 samples we selected from sulphide occurrences and mines in Finland. Even though black shales are rarely outcropped in glaciated and deeply weathered terrains, they can be traced with geophysical surveys. In the Precambrian of Finland, where the metamorphic grade varies from greenschist to granulite facies, systematic airborne geophysical surveys revealed stratigraphy-related, coupled magnetic and electrically conductive patterns. Electrical conductivity was related to the graphite and sulphide contents, producing continuous and bending electromagnetic anomaly patterns. The magnetic anomalies, if present, resulted from ferrimagnetic monoclinic pyrrhotite. The petrophysical properties of black shales varied in our sample set. The densities were mainly between 2700 and 3000 kg/m3, with the mean density ~ 2800 kg/m3, where the amount of graphite had a reducing effect on density whereas sulphides increased it. The average magnetic susceptibilities were about 6000·10−6 (SI), but they showed wide variation, depending on the abundance of ferrimagnetic monoclinic pyrrhotite. The electrical conductivity of black shales appeared to be positively related to the abundance of monoclinic pyrrhotite. Conductivity variation, 1–105 1/Ωm was based on laboratory determinations of apparent resistivities. We correlated an airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey with petrophysical and chemical data from altogether 319 drill core samples containing >1 % graphitic C and >1 % S. The samples were selected during 2009–2011 from 102 drill cores all over Finland except for the Talvivaara–Outokumpu region, which was studied during previous projects. The black-shale-hosted Talvivaara Ni–Zn–Co–Cu deposit is currently being mined. The maximum graphite concentration in the country-wide sample set was 34.3 %, and the median value was 5.7 %, a lower value than reported from the Talvivaara black-shale-hosted sulphide deposit (7.6 %). S, Co, Cu, Fe and Ni concentrations were also lower in our sample set on average than in the Talvivaara ore. However, the maximum concentration in our sample set was 397 mg/kg for Co, 0.36 % for Cu, 40.8 % for Fe and 0.28 % for Ni. The developed black shale mapping procedure can be directly applied in other parts of the world in terrains with greenschist to granulite facies regional metamorphism. Information on basic petrophysical properties, i.e., density, magnetic and electric properties, are needed to explain geophysical anomalies. If the metamorphic grade is lower than greenschist facies and there is no graphite, sulphides will increase the electromagnetic properties. If ferrimagnetic pyrrhotite exists, susceptibility increases, as well as remanence. The black shale database covering the whole of Finland is used not only in exploration and bedrock mapping, but also in regional planning and for environmental risk analyses, because sulphide-rich black shales may cause acid rock drainage when exposed to weathering and the quality of surface water and groundwater may suffer from black shale bedrock and glacial till. The scale limitations given by airborne geophysics may request detailed studies in selected sites.