Acquisition and interpretation of horizontal hole electronic cores based on panoramic imaging technology

Abstract:

The Northern Tashidaban Lithium Mining Area is located in the Kunlun-Altyn Mountains. Characterized by complex geological structures， it lies in an alpine region with deeply incised terrain and large topographic relief， making the relocation of drilling equipment extremely difficult. The ore layers in this mining area have steep dips. To implement the concept of “green exploration”， horizontal and near-horizontal directional boreholes are mainly used in drilling operations to reduce equipment relocation and protect the ecological environment. To address the issue that core samples obtained during coring drilling cannot accurately capture formation information （such as formation attitude， fracture width， and weak interlayers） due to factors like fractured formations， discontinuous coring， and human differences in core logging， a self-developed multi-parameter all-directional cableless logging system was adopted for full-hole panoramic imaging of horizontal boreholes. This study overcame technical challenges by developing a calculation method for formation structural planes based on horizontal borehole panoramic imaging. Additionally， a cableless storage and drill pipe pushing method was used to solve the problem that testing instruments cannot be lowered in deep horizontal boreholes. During the lowering process of the logging system， high-definition， continuous， complete， and in-situ photos of the borehole wall were acquired. Through image processing technology， “electronic cores” were generated， from which information such as formation lithology， fractures， weak interlayers， karst features， and rock layer thickness can be clearly and intuitively obtained. This enables accurate measurement and calculation of formation structural plane parameters， realizing detailed exploration， improving the quality of drilling operations， and effectively supporting the digital transformation of mineral exploration breakthroughs.