The radio wave absorption technique in Mailaram copper mines, India

Pritchett (1952) suggested that the possibility of using electromagnetic (EM) waves of 1.652 MHz frequency in drill holes to solve geologic problems is limited. Subsequently, Barret (1952) demonstrated that a portable radio‐frequency transmitter of limited power could be utilized for subsurface radio wave prospecting. He also concluded that the EM energy radiated from the transmitter in fact traveled through the rock mass but not along the paths of least attenuation such as mine shafts or tunnels. Electromagnetic fields in the range of 1 to 57 MHz frequencies were used for applications such as locating tunnels between boreholes (Lytle, 1979), determining bulk conductivity of granites (Lytle and Lager, 1976), and determining the skin depth for different zones between two boreholes using data inversion algorithms (Lager and Lytle, 1977). Petrovskii et al (1968) and Tarkhov et al (1973) reported the application of subsurface radio wave prospectings for solving various geologic problems.