Smart Design

No two surveys are the same. Smart seismic design requires a holistic approach, considering the business, geological, operational, and environmental factors.

HiSeis design bespoke surveys that:

• Deliver on the project’s technical requirements and geophysical objectives
• Minimise environmental impact through optimised use of existing clearing and access
• Utilise the most suitable seismic sources for the project’s requirements
• Maximise productivity and reduce costs
• Seamlessly integrate with operational and safety requirements
• Adjust and contour surveys in real-time, factoring in environmental and natural features such as dunes, waterways, vegetation, and heritage sites

Our design and acquisition experts collaborate closely with clients throughout the planning and acquisition phases to ensure that all environmental, heritage, operational, safety and ecological considerations are integrated into intelligent survey design. This includes the digitisation of detailed buffer zones, exclusions, deviations and other zones of consideration.

Active Seismic

HiSeis has acquired more than 150 seismic surveys globally across a range of geological and geographical environments. This includes the largest high resolution hard-rock survey ever completed over Olympic Dam, South Australia in 2023 (144 square kilometres) utilising more than 40,000 active nodes.

As the global leaders in hard-rock seismic, we bring extensive experience across a wide range of operational environments. This includes:

• Active and operational mine sites
• Winter/snow operations
• Heli-portable operations
• Multi-source operations (Vibroseis, Explosive, Weight Drop, Sparkers)
• Remote camp operations
• Regional government projects
• Driverless source projects

These projects have seen us operate in North and South America, Canada, Europe, throughout the continent of Africa and extensively across Australia’s most prominent mine sites.

With our industry leading 5Hz nodal acquisition system (Inova Quantum) and a fleet of source vehicles, we are committed to acquiring the highest quality datasets available to the industry.

We believe in using the right source for the right situation, and sometimes this requires a combination of sources.

Our source fleet includes:

• 60,000lb AHV-IV Vibroseis Fleet (BHP Approved Safety Spec)
• 32,000lb Univibe Fleet
• F10 Hurricane Drop Weight (Skid Steer Mounted)
• F9 Hurricane Drop Weight (Skid Steer Mounted)
• Betsy Gun
• Seismic Explosives
• Downhole Sparkers

Passive Seismic

Ambient Noise Tomography data (ANT) has found its place as a low-resolution exploration tool delivering large scale, low frequency velocity models of the subsurface through the measurement of subtle seismic energy generated by environmental noise.

Combining 3D ANT and 2D active seismic surveys

HiSeis routinely complement low impact 2D seismic surveys with the deployment of 3D passive nodes which require little-to-no deviation from standard operations of an active seismic crew. ANT lends itself to broad scale data acquisition, utilising large receiver spacings, allowing low impact, large scale surveys to be acquired at a low price.

Borehole Seismic

Borehole seismic functions as an important tool to better calibrate and understand the rock properties and seismic response of an environment.

HiSeis is experienced in the acquisition, processing and interpretation of Full Waveform Sonic (FWS), Zero Offset Vertical Seismic Profile (VSP), Walkaway VSP, 3D VSP and Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS). We routinely collect and process these data sets to better calibrate seismic surveys and support the development of our innovative seismic technologies.

Low Impact Seismic

As we move towards cleaner exploration, we are committed to uncovering new and innovative ways to image the Earth while minimising our footprint.

As the industry strives to reduce environmental footprint and impact, we have actively worked to provide unique low-impact seismic solutions that allow for the acquisition of high-resolution, fit-for-purpose seismic data, while maintaining a low level of disturbance to the environment that we survey. This means that crews can be deployed quickly while adhering to environmental and heritage restrictions without requiring time consuming permits and permissions. Low-impact initiatives include:

• Betsy Gun Sources
• Zero-clearing surveys
• Skid-steer mounted weight drops
• Light-weight seismic systems
• Pseudo 3D survey designs

Multi-Source Acquisition

HiSeis is experienced with multi-source acquisition programs relating to both data acquisition and data processing. This requirement allows surveys to be designed to suit the operational and logistical restrictions while optimising the technical scope of the project. This includes the integration of Vibroseis, weight drop and explosive surveys into single surveys and phase matching in the processing workflow.

High Productivity Seismic

HiSeis has invested heavily in optimising high-productivity vibroseis acquisition for hard-rock environments. This includes refining sweep lengths, overlap, listen times, and separation distances to ensure multiple vibroseis fleets can operate simultaneously without compromising data quality. By implementing these improvements, surveys can be conducted faster, more efficiently, and at a lower cost.