How to choose a proper representation of compositional data for mineral exploration?

Abstract

Regional mineral exploration is based on geochemical data of which the nature is compositional and frequently involves a large number of components. Consequently, it mostly needs multivariate dimension reduction methods such as principal component analysis (PCA) and its various robust versions. The application of such methods, defined for real random variables, require the data to be represented in coordinates supported in the real space. However, a common problem in exploration geochemistry is to select the appropriate representation. Using centered (clr) and isometric (ilr) logratio coordinates to discriminate anomalous zones for orogeny gold exploration throughout Sweden revealed that there is, as expected, no difference between the two representation methods. The main difference affects the interpretation of the coordinates used. This is observed for regional scale exploration, while it is also needed to study different ways of representing geochemical data in local scale.