Integrating Aster 07XT, Landsat 8, and aeromagnetic data for the delineation of potential mineralization sites in North Cameroon

Abstract

In mineral exploration, detailed hydrothermally altered minerals mapping is an important approach prior to the field campaign. The study area contains several gold‐bearing quartz veins associated with hydrothermally altered zones rich in sulphides, muscovite/sericite, iron oxides, and hydrous silica. In this study, Aster 07XT, Landsat 8, and aeromagnetic data were integrated to detect potential zones associated with gold mineralization in Northern Cameroon. For this purpose, the relative band absorption depth, band ratioing, and analytic signal techniques were applied to enhance, identify and map hydrothermal alteration minerals, that is, hydroxyl‐bearing, iron oxide/hydroxide. In addition, a semi‐automatic approach was applied to extract remotely sensed and aeromagnetic lineaments from PCI Geomatica and Centre for Exploration Targeting Grid Analysis respectively. Hence, several potential mining targets were delineated from the processing of both remote sensing and aeromagnetic data. The major directions of the lineaments affecting the area include NE–SW/ENE–WSW, E–W, and N–S. Detailed field campaigns, petrographic analyses, and spectral measurements of rock samples were carried out in Tchollire and environs to verify the results from remotely sensed data. The analytical observations indicated the presence of quartz, epidote, chlorite, magnetite, haematite, sericite, galena, sulphide, telluride minerals, etc. Moreover, the target hydrothermal alteration zones were proved to be spatially associated with known mining areas and gold occurrences in the study area. Consequently, new prospective mining areas have been designated. This study confirmed the reliability and applicability of the processing of satellite imagery in mineral exploration in Northern Cameroon. It is suggested that the dataset used in this study provides a suitable tool for mapping hydrothermal alteration minerals linked to gold deposits and can be applied in other provinces with similar geological settings.