Exploring mineralization zones using remote sensing and aeromagnetic data, West Allaqi Area, Eastern-Desert, Egypt

Abstract

Wadi-Allaqi district, in the southern part of the Eastern Desert of Egypt, is a historic well-known gold resource that has been exploited since the Pharaonic era. The study area represents the western segment of Wadi-Allaqi, about 220 km southeast Aswan city, Upper Egypt. It covers approximately 4702 km2. Exploring new potential mineralization zones was conducted by integrating the Landsat-8 and aeromagnetic data to map different surfaces of alteration zones and trace shallow and deep mineralized bodies. The corrected Landsat-Operational Land Imager (OLI) bands were processed using the Band Ratio (BR), Crosta, selective for the Minimum Noise Fraction (MNF) transformation, and False-Color Composition (FCC) techniques were used to detect the hydrothermal alteration zones and recognize the different geological units. The enhanced eigenimage (MNF1) was processed to delineate the fractures and weakness zones over the west Allaqi-Heini Suture (AHS). The shallow residual mineralized sources have been detected and mapped using the Tilt Derivative (TDR), First Derivative (FVD) and high pass filter techniques of aeromagnetic data. The depths to the mineralized magnetic sources, and hence the roots of gold and other minerals, were obtained using the power spectrum and Euler techniques. Accordingly, new gold and mineralization potential zones were successfully delineated over the study area's ophiolitic, metavolcanics, and granitic rocks. Lineaments deduced from aeromagnetic and remote sensing data represent the pathways of the ascending hydrothermal fluids. The main trends of the dominant structural systems were detected through the statistical analyses of these lineaments.