Data integration study for mineral potential mapping in northeastern Alberta

Abstract

A preliminary data integration study was conducted for a part of the Canadian Shield in northeastern Alberta to produce mineral potential maps. Digital data sets of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, mineral occurrences and remote sensing information were compiled and registered to a common coordinate system, thus forming a number of discrete layers of digital data. Several modelling procedures were developed to integrate the data to produce mineral potential maps. One of these procedures is the logistic discriminant function model. The application of this model involves using statistical correlations among data layers and gold occurrences at the locations of known gold occurrences in the study area, to predict the potential for unknown gold occurrences elsewhere in the study area. A training area was used to construct a statistical relationship among 27 of the 36 known gold occurrences in the area and the 14 layers of input data. The statistical relationship derived from the training area was then applied to the entire area. Application of the discriminant function model over the entire area successfully predicts the occurrence of more than 75% of the known gold occurrences in the area.