Fractal analysis of structural characteristics and prospecting of the Luanchuan polymetallic mining district, China

Abstract

Abstract The Luanchuan polymetallic mining district (LPMD) covers many major deposits of the East Qinling metallogenic belt in Henan Province, central China. It has attracted much attention because of its various types of minerals, abundant mineral reserves and huge metallogenic potential. Systematic research on the geology of LPMD has been carried out previously, and it is concluded that the formation of the ore deposits is dominantly controlled by fault structure. However, there are few reports on the quantitative characterization of fault structure and spatial distribution of deposits and the coupling relationship between them. This study applies fractal theory to the illustration of the characteristics of inter-relationship between fault structure and spatial distribution of the ore deposits in LPMD, which then may serve as a basis for further ore exploration. Our results indicate that the capacity dimension (CPDs) of integrated fault structure, NW-trend fault and NE-trend fault for the area investigated are 1.7206, 1.6539 and 1.2145, respectively; while the information dimension (IND) of which is 1.7143, 1.6559 and 1.2222, respectively. The studied area has superior geological environment for potential ore deposits, with major contribution from the NW-trend fault. Spatial distribution dimension value of metallic ore is 0.8873. Quantity fractal dimension and Density fractal dimension values of the metallic deposits are 1.1154 and 1.115, respectively. Quantitatively, the main ore deposits discovered in this area mainly fall on either CPD ≥ 1.49, IND ≥ 1.38 or 1.49 > CPD ≥ 1.00, 1.38 > IND ≥ 1.00. Qualitatively, conditions that facilitate ore deposits require higher fractal dimension values. Among the areas studied, we found that Rank I area is the most ideal region that fulfilled the quantitative and qualitative conditions, which is consistent with the actual location of the ore deposits discovered.