Electromagnetic methods for mineral exploration in China: A review

Electromagnetic methods play an important role in mineral exploration and are widely used in the search for metallic resources such as copper, molybdenum, lead-zinc, bauxite, uranium, etc. In this paper, we focus on reviewing the application and development of electromagnetic methods, such as magnetotelluric (MT), audio magnetotelluric (AMT), controlled-source audio magnetotelluric (CSAMT), and transient electromagnetic (TEM), respectively. This paper also presents examples of electromagnetic methods applied to the exploration of metal deposits on land, airborne and in the marine environment. Furthermore, we discuss the future development of electromagnetic prospecting tools, the data processing, modeling and inversion, interpretation, and their application in complex geological environments. The future of successful mineral exploration using EM methods will be focused on concealed and deep target exploration, and possibly one day on resources on the seafloor.