An introduction to the brand spread over 26 posts

Aktiebolaget Elektrisk Malmletning which is Swedish for electric ore-prospecting company. Originally providing innovative prospection services to the mining industry in the 1920s, the focus gradually switched to manufacturing and selling geophysical equipment.

We don't just provide surface systems, accessories are available from ABEM for measuring within boreholes. Terraloc Pro 2 can be configured for down-hole, up-hole, cross-hole and seismic tomography whilst the Terrameter products can undertake borehole ERT or connect to our Log 300 for borehole logging.

2023 is an important year for Guideline Geo as it marks 100 years since ABEM first started developing geophysical equipment and offering prospection services to the mining industry in Sweden. Gradually the company focus changed from service provision to manufacturing their instruments for sale.

We are driven by a passion to provide quality, innovative, easy to use solutions. Whether it’s our R&D group in Umeå, production team at the factory in Malå, or our sales and support staff in Stockholm and across the globe, our company values of professionalism, quality, honesty and passion are obvious.

A huge application area for ABEM products, whether it's mapping permafrost thickness as an indicator of climate change, monitoring salination or pollution plumes, or investigating former landfill and industrial sites. With our resistivity, IP, seismic and TEM solutions, we have efficient and innovative tools for the job.

Everyone’s survey needs are different and change over time. All ABEM instruments are scalable, from entry-level to advanced functionality, and available with accessories to suit almost any application. Upgrading specifications is simple and can even be done remotely with our unique hardware licensing system.

A huge area for the whole company, seismic and electrical resistivity methods are key to efficient ground investigation projects such as mapping depth to bedrock, bedrock strength, slope stability and earthquake resilience. As near-surface specialists, ABEM combine ease of use with powerful functionality.

Water has been a core sector for ABEM and our SAS instruments have been trusted partners to water prospectors for decades. The Terrameter LS 2 continues in that vein, and with the WalkTEM 2 efficiency and ease of use have been put front and centre in the design of the product.

Induced Polarization has long been a key tool in the mineral exploration toolbox but now, increasingly, it is used in hydrogeophysics and contaminant studies too. The Terrameter LS 2 has a unique 100% Duty Cycle method of collecting better shallow IP data more quickly by removing the traditional current-off period.

Our ABEM Product Manager, Jimmy Adcock, talks about why he wanted to work with Guideline Geo and the ABEM products and also what a Product Manager does from day to day.

Being a great hardware manufacturer is about more than just producing great equipment. We work hard to build knowledgeable engineering, sales and support teams so that when you come to us, we can provide you with the right system for your needs, provide advice or get you back up and running quickly.

Successful geophysical survey requires careful planning, a good understanding of the method and knowledge of how to work with and process data. We provide in-person theory, instrument and software training, online courses, workshops and free webinars to cover the whole of the ABEM range.

Increasingly there is a desire to look at how geophysical properties change with time rather than a single static ‘snapshot’. Many of the ABEM systems can be operated remotely, or left to collect data autonomously, and we have the expertise to help create the right monitoring set-up for you.

Guideline Geo has offices globally and a large network of distributors and partners offering advice and quotations for the ABEM range. Add the thousands of global customers and you see that purchasing an ABEM system makes you part of something much larger: Welcome!

It would be impossible to talk about the ABEM range without mentioning the colour. Orange has been a part of the brand’s identity for a very long time now, so keep your eyes open for orange boxes out in the field or in social media posts and find out what others are doing with their ABEM instrumentation.

Prospecting, or 'exploration' to use more modern terminology, normally refers to the search and mapping of natural resources using a host of different methods. Near-surface mineral prospecting is in the DNA of ABEM and will remain a strong focus area for us into the future, working with key partners in the sector.

Building and maintaining a reputation for providing high-performance, reliable instruments is a full-time, company-wide effort. Excellent data and build quality relies upon our ABEM engineers to design and build class-leading electronics and to package them in rugged IP66 rated housings.

But instrumentation is only half the story and it’s great to see everyone in the company motivated to do their part in also providing quality customer service.

A method of mapping subsurface structure, composition and condition by analysing the resistance to a flow of current.

The ABEM Terrameter instruments are robust, high specification, easy-to-use meters suited to undertaking resistivity surveys for exploration, monitoring, engineering assessment, geological studies and scientific analysis and testing.

Analysis of the speed and path of seismic waves travelling through the ground can tell us much about the structure, composition and stability of the materials within it.

Engineering analysis, geological mapping and resource exploration are common uses for ABEM's rugged all-in-one Terraloc Pro seismographs.

It's a happy coincidence that the three principle ABEM methods all sit next to each other in the alphabet, and the final one is TEM: transient electromagnetics.

A wire loop induces currents in the ground which gradually spread down and out; the electromagnetic field they create is detected by receiver coils and ABEM's innovative WalkTEM 2 can be used to analyse conductive targets such as ground water and mineral deposits.

ABEM offers many unique functions to you: The Terrameter LS 2 has an innovative 100% duty cycle mode for more effective near-surface IP surveys. The WalkTEM 2 allows inversion of raw soundings into resistivity models onboard the instrument to get a first look at results whilst still in the field.

The Terraloc Pro 2 brings a host of little wins like an enormous window length, separate reference channels, a set-up wizard and complete standalone design.

Seismic velocities are an incredibly useful tool for site investigation. Unlike many of the other geophysical methods, where interpretations are made in relative terms, seismic investigation can provide quantitative analysis of ground conditions.

For example, seismic velocities can be entered into published equations to generate known engineering parameters for site assessment.

Not looking for water, but working in it… The ABEM Terraloc Pro 2 can be paired with hydrophone strings and a marine source for waterborne survey.

Likewise, the Terrameter LS 2 can be paired with either dual-purpose cables, suitable for land, intertidal, marine and borehole measurements, or more robust full marine cables for deeper water and boreholes.

A xenophile is someone who loves learning about people and cultures from around the world. We are proud to have ABEM customers operating on every continent and a comprehensive spread of distributors and partners that we work very closely with.

The diversity encountered in our working lives not only allows insight into other people’s way of life, working practices and local challenges but inevitably makes the world seem a smaller place and enriches our personal lives.

Don’t forget we have a huge resource of webinars and other short videos on our YouTube page where you can find out more about hardware, software and applications related to the ABEM instruments.

The Z-Axis on a data plot normally represents depth and a common question is “How deep can we see?”. For resistivity, the maximum depth is approximately 20% of the electrode spread length, for seismic it varies from being equal to the cable spread to approximately 20% of the cable spread.

For TEM it is highly dependent upon geology but for a given site it will be controlled by the size of loop and current flowing. We have some neat little cheat sheets to help predict the maximum depth of investigation so give us a shout if you want to learn more.