International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science

(IJAERS)
Peer-Reviewed Journal
ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O)
Vol-11, Issue-7; Jul, 2024
Journal Home Page Available: https://ijaers.com/
Article DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.117.7

Resource Estimation in a Rock Salt Deposit, Brazil- A case

study
José Batista Siqueira

Departmento de Geologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Email: [email protected]

Received: 22 May 2024, Abstract— This work presents the results of Geological
Receive in revised form: 29 Jun 2024, Modeling and resource estimation of a salt deposit, in an
eastern margin basin of the Espirito Santo state - Brazil. This
Accepted: 07 Jul 2024,
work had, among other objectives, the geological evaluation of
Available online: 14 Jul 2024 the evaporite sequence in the onshore part of the basin and
©2024 The Author(s). Published by AI Publication. This is delimitation of the area of occurrence of soluble salts.
an open access article under the CC BY license Therefore, the object of study focuses on the Mariricu
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Formation, which is composed of the fluvial continental
Mucuri and evaporitic Itaúnas members. It is the essentially
Keywords— Estimation, Itaúnas member resources, salt
evaporitic unit, in which the rock salt deposit is found.
deposit.
Through modeling, a total resource of the order of 4.65x109t
were estimated. Which are grouped into the following
categories: measured resources of the order of 4,38x10 9t, with
an average of 85,40% NaCl, indicated resources 0,23x10 9t,
with an average of 84,63% NaCl and inferred resources
2,1x106t, with an average of 76,63% NaCl. These are
interesting resources and should be considered.

I. INTRODUCTION basement. Only the Rio Doce Formation appears on the

This work presents the results of Geological Modeling surface, locally covered by recent sediments. The others
and resource estimation of a salt deposit, in an eastern formations only occur in the subsurface.
margin basin of the Espirito Santo state. This work had, The Mariricu Formation is composed of the fluvial
among other objectives, the geological evaluation of the continental Mucuri and evaporitic Itaúnas members. It is
evaporite sequence in the onshore part of the basin and the essentially evaporitic unit, in which the rock salt
delimitation of the area of soluble salts occurrence. deposit is found.
Like other basins on the equatorial and eastern margins In this work, the Leapfrog software was applied to
of Brazil, the Espirito Santo basin had its origin related to integrate geophysical data from subsurface, geological and
the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana. In this basin, geochemical data from wells in the Espirito Santo basin,
the rocks are related to the tectonics of the rift and drift 3D modeling and obtaining resource estimation.
phases, which were responsible for its evolution [1]
(Matos, R.M.D. 1992).
II. MATERIAL AND METHODS
The geology of the area consist of sediments from the
Preliminary search
Tertiary to Lower Cretaceous (Andar Rio da Serra). It
comprises the Rio Doce, Urucutuca, Barra Nova and The work carried out during the initial phase of
Mariricu formations, which unconformably overlap the research aimed to geologically evaluate the evaporite

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Siqueira International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 11(7)-2024

sequence of the Espirito Santo basin and delimit the area of the area, creation of intervals (selecting the subdivision
where soluble salts occur in the onshore part of the basin. of the lithotypes), creating the contact surfaces and
Around 300 km of seismic reflection lines were generating volumes.
examined, in addition to gutter samples, cores and profiles, Currently the representation of data made in a simple
relating to 44 wells. and direct way is extremely important in all area of
At this stage, the following works were developed: geology, where the 3D models obtained stand out.
Successor of block diagrams, and can be classified into
1. analysis of electrical, radioactive and acoustic
two types: explicit and implicit modeling [2] (Garcia, L.M.
profiles of wells (DLL, GR, LDL, BHC, CNL, CDS and
& Gonçalves, I.G. 2021). Explicit modeling is essentially
HRT), with the aim of identifying sequences of soluble
similar to an engineering drawing process. Implicit
salts, in places where there was no coring;
modeling is algorithmically generated directly from a
2. stratigraphic correlation through the profiles that combination of measured data and user interpretation [3]
intercepted the sequence of soluble salts; (Lane, R. 2015). This approach is faster, more flexible and
3. detailed macroscopic description of the evaporite fundamentally better suited for geological modeling. Then,
sequence of the pioneer wells in which coring was carried geostatistical methods are used to interpolate the drilling
out; data and thus seek the geological behavior of the solid to
be modeled, optimizing the process. Applying this
4. identification of the clastic intercalations in the
foundation of implicit modeling, the 3D geological model
evaporite sequence, and consequently the determination of
was generated.
the quality of the salt for use through a viable mining
method;
5. integration of subsurface and surface data, with the III. RESULTS
purpose of selecting the most favorable ones for detailed Data statistics
research.
From the 3D geological model, a statistical analysis of
the information from the geochemical results of the well
Detail search was carried out, to see the distribution of values in the
model.
At this stage, holes were drilled and cored to identify
and characterize the soluble salt zone. In this step, with the purpose of relating the
information contained in the geochemical data of the well
The data obtained at this stage complemented the
with the geology and others properties, the merged table
information obtained in the preliminary research. And
was combined.
seismic reflection was fundamental in making the decision
where to locate the holes, instead of following a pre- According to the statistical analysis, using scatter plot,
established drilling network. Q-Q plot and Box plot alternative the data was explored to
verify the relationships between NaCl concentration and
In each hole drilled, electrical, radioactive and acoustic
evaporite grade designed as low, mid and high (Table 01,
profiles were run, which were used for lithological
Figure 01 and 02).
identification and stratigraphic correlations.
Table 01: Statistics of samples.
All data obtained at this stage were processed and
Name % Mean Std. dv Coef. var. Variance Minimum Lower Q Median Upper Q Maximum
interpreted, and served as support in updating the Br2 0,09 0,65 7,56 0,43 0,00 0,03 0,04 0,05 9,96
Ca 1,45 1,65 1,14 2,72 0,08 0,42 0,72 1,72 7,85
preliminary research data. Cl 46,89 17,02 0,36 289,66 0,17 36,73 56,51 58,85 60,01
H2O 1,26 7,05 5,62 49,72 0,01 0,17 0,33 0,57 70,00
The database was organized and loaded into the K 0,02 0,01 0,40 0,00 0,01 0,02 0,02 0,03 0,06
Mg 0,05 0,10 2,11 0,01 0,01 0,02 0,03 0,04 1,20
Leapfrog software, where the 3D geological modeling was Na 30,87 10,48 0,34 109,79 0,02 26,36 36,67 38,10 39,99
R1 15,07 22,53 1,50 507,67 0,02 0,67 1,94 23,09 77,32
carried out. And from this, a resource estimate was SO4 3,78 6,46 1,71 41,69 0,03 0,81 1,42 4,15 58,40
obtained for a portion of this basin, as detailed below.
From this verification of the consistency of the data, a
careful analysis of the geostatistical parameters was carried
Geological 3D modeling out, starting with the search for the appropriate variogram
for numerical modeling of the data on the X, Y and Z axes
The modeling was carried out based on four main
of the search ellipsoid in the estimation salt grade inside
steps: import of drilling data (database containing
the rock salt deposit.
geological and geochemical information of the wells in the
study area), creation of the topography of the land surface

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Siqueira International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 11(7)-2024

Fig. 04. Intermediate axis variogram

Fig. 01. Histogram of NaCl distribution in the deposit

samples.

Fig. 05. Minor axis variogram

After the variographic study, the block model was

created with the aim of estimating the volumes and
contents of the salt deposit light blue color (Figure 06).
Fig. 02. Box plot Na % and relations with grade levels.
When estimating resources, simple and ordinary
Data geostatistics kriging was used, but simple kriging was chosen.
Variography
The variography of the data was carried out with the
purpose of verifying the spatial behavior of the NaCl
variable, aiming to determine directions of greatest,
intermediate and least continuity of the samples as well as
the range of the variogram (Figures 03 to 05).

Fig. 06. 3D block model of the salt deposit (light blue).

Volume estimation
After the modeling and deposit estimation stage, total
resources of the order of 4.65x109t were estimated. Which
are grouped into the following categories: measured
resources of the order of 4,38x10 9t, with an average of
85,40% NaCl, indicated resources 0,23x10 9t, with an
average of 84,63% NaCl and inferred resources 2,1x106t,
Fig. 03. Major axis variogram
with an average of 76,63% NaCl (Table 02).

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Siqueira International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 11(7)-2024

Table 02: Estimated volume of the study area

Resource Volume Mass Mean NaCl%
measured 1.991.937.500 4.382.262.500 85,40
indicated 104.862.500 230.697.500 84,63
inferred 987.500 2.172.500 76,63

IV. CONCLUSION
After the modeling and deposit estimation stage, total
resources of the order of 4,65x109t were estimated. Which
are grouped into the following categories: measured
resources 4,38x109t, indicated resources 0,23x109t and
inferred resources 2,17x106t.
These are interesting resources and should be
considered as carriers of alternative elements to support
the energy transition.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the Federal University of Rio Grande of
Norte for institutional support, Seequent/Bentley for
granting the academic license of the Leapfrog software and
the reviewers of the journal.

REFERENCES
[1] Matos, R.M.D. (1992). The Northeast Brazilian System.
Tectonics, 2(4), 766-791.
[2] Garcia, L. M. & Gonçalves, I. G. (2021). Implementação da
modelagem implícita na graduação. In: Anais do 13º Salão
Internacional de Ensino, Pesquisa e Extensão da
UNIPAMPA, 13(1).
[3] Lane, R. (2015). Why Implicit Modelling. In:
SEEQUENT/BENTLEY. Available in
https://www.seequent.com/why-implicit-modelling.
Accessed on: January 2022.

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