Extraction of weak information of altered minerals in the Lala Copper Mine,Sichuan Province,China based on the ASTER and GF-5 satellite data
The Lala Cu deposit in Sichuan Province is one of the large sized Cu deposits in the Kangdian Cu metallogenic belt.A significant breakthrough of mineral exploration in the area has been made in recent years.In order to further expand the exploration space in the area,in this study,based on the ASTER multispectral and GF-5 hyperspectral remote sensing data,by introducing the principal component analysis and spectral angle mapping methods,we have finely extracted weak information of altered minerals such as carbonate minerals,iron oxides/hydroxides,albite,biotite,chlorite,hornblende,muscovite,and quartz in the Lala deposit.The results indicate that some weak information anomalies of altered minerals are certainly coincident with known Cu deposits/mineral occurrences such as the Lala,Hongnipo,Laoyanghantan,and Shilong deposits.The field investigation of unknown weak information anomalies indicate that,there are signs of alteration and/or mineralization in those anomalies which are good indicators for mineral exploration.It is recommended that further mineral prospecting and exploration should be carried out in areas with densely distributed weak information anomalies in the central-northern(such as the Hongnipo-Shangliang village)and southern(such as the Hailin village)parts of the research area.It can be seen that the extracted weak information anomalies of altered minerals from the remote sensing data can provide prospecting clues for the deployment of mineral exploration in the Lala area,and they are worth for being paid attention to.
ASTERGF-5PCA methodSAM methodextraction of weak information of altered mineralsLala Cu deposit