Delineation of Concealed Copper–Cobalt Mineralization Targets Using Semi-Airborne Transient Electromagnetic Data in the Kambove Mining District, Democratic Republic of the Congo

As supply risks for cobalt and other critical metals increase, detecting concealed orebodies in mature mining districts has become increasingly important for resource renewal. The Ksignal area, located on the margin of the Kambove mining district in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, lies near the M’sesa-Shangolowe structural system and exhibits copper geochemical anomalies. Together with the district’s position in the core of the Central African Copperbelt, these features indicate strong potential for concealed copper–cobalt mineralization. To investigate this potential, we conducted a semi-airborne transient electromagnetic survey in the Ksignal area. Because induced polarization effects can distort transient electromagnetic responses and complicate resistivity interpretation, we account for these effects and jointly estimate resistivity and chargeability from the observed data. The resulting resistivity–chargeability framework reveals an electrical discontinuity, which we interpret as an electrical structural interface in the Ksignal area. By integrating this inferred interface with borehole constraints and copper geochemical anomalies, we identify and interpret composite anomalies related to concealed mineralization. The results delineate a coherent candidate zone east of the inferred electrical structural interface, trending from near north–south to north-northwest and partly coinciding with the copper geochemical anomaly. This work provides geophysical evidence for deep and peripheral exploration in the Kambove mining district and supports the development of multiparameter target-delineation workflows for brownfield exploration.