Application of Fractal Modelling for Cu Mineralisation Reconnaissance by ASTER Multispectral and Stream Sediment Data in Khoshname Area, NW Iran

Abstract

This study identifies the major Cu anomalous zones including iron oxide, argillic and phyllic alterations and lithology as the most important extractable layers from the satellite images in Khoshname area located in the western part of Tarom - Hashtjin belt as a main metallogenic belt in the NW of Iran by utilization of concentration-area (C-A) fractal model based on 216 collected stream sediment and remote sensing data. The C-A fractal model for ASTER image log-log plots indicate three Cu geochemical populations for alterations which means that the high intensity for iron oxides, argillic and phyllic commences with 199, 177 and 158, respectively, in terms of pixels’ values. With respect to the C-A log-log plot based on the stream sediment data, there are three Cu populations which indicate that Cu background and high intensive anomalies are 56 ppm, respectively. The locations of high intensive Cu anomalies are situated in the SW parts of the area. To certify this, a correlation between remote sensing and geochemical data has been conducted to validate the C-A fractal model for Cu anomalies associated with alteration zones.