Ideas and Methods for Mineral Resources Integrated Prediction in Covered Areas

In this paper, it is shown that the element concentration in the stream sediments in the covered areas can be very low due to decay and mask effects even if a thin layer of overburden exists. The examples introduced in the paper for prediction of mineral deposits of skarn types have demonstrated that the nonlinear singularity and generalized self-similarity theories and methods can be used to map anomalies for locating undiscovered mineral deposits in areas covered by transported regolith. Three main aspects of difficulties facing mineral exploration and mineral deposit prediction in covered areas are discussed in the paper which include weak anomalies detection and recognition, decomposition of complex and mixing anomalies due to multiple geo-processes, and application of evidential layers with missing or incomplete information due to covers. Various models have been proposed for prediction of various objects including felsic intrusions, skarn and hydrothermal alterations and local geochemical anomalies. Several datasets, including 1∶200 000 scale geological maps, stream sediment geochemical data, aeromagnetic and gravity data were applied for delineation of potential target areas for Fe mineral deposits of volcanic skarn and hydrothermal types in the areas covered by desert and Ternary to Quaternary sediments.