Detection of prospective areas for mineralization deposits using image analysis technique of aeromagnetic data around Marsa Alam-Idfu road, Eastern Desert, Egypt

Abstract

Area around Marsa Alam-Idfu road is considered as one of the most prospective regions for gold and base metals mineralization in Egypt. The total intensity aeromagnetic reduced to northern magnetic pole (RTP) data of such area revealed that a set of parallel continuous linear features taken NNW-SSE trend with variable magnetic amplitudes, which are related to faults, dykes and shear zones. Also, this map showed strong negative and positive magnetic anomalies generated in contact zones, which may be considered with the linear features as prospective areas for mineralization.The application of centre for exploration targeting (CET) grid image analysis technique was applied for the aeromagnetic data of such area for rapidly locating regions perceived to be most favorable for gold and base metals deposits. The technique generated a series of high structural complexity maps which are combined to create an overall prospectively map that defined regions of high potentially for mineral deposits.Integration of the obtained results from the resulted maps and the RTP magnetic map, aided by the geological information revealed that a good correlation between the known gold and base metals locations and the regions of mineralization that are generated by the proposed technique. Besides, additionally locations of gold and base metals deposits were found on the generated map. These new locations are suggestive of where the mineralization may occur. The derived locations of these mineralization are aligned along definite trends, which are arranged according to their magnitude and importance as NNE-SSW, NW-SE, NNW-SSE, E-W and NE-SW directions. Serpentine rocks and their contacts with the surrounding rocks could be considered valuable as gold mineralization zones of economic importance and are considered as significant targets for follow-up and ground investigations.