Abstract
In this study, a different ranking method has been proposed to prioritize the mineral potential areas and select the best potential area to decrease potential risks of mineral exploration. In this regard, at first, the area located in the east-southeast of the Sarcheshmeh copper mine was selected as mineral targets due to their high potential of porphyry copper occurrences. Then, the favorable porphyry copper areas were determined through collecting and integrating multiple exploratory evidential layers derived from remotely sensed imagery, geochemical, geophysical, lithological, and structural maps and images using the fuzzy logic approach in the GIS environment. Next, through building the decision matrix, the fuzzy VIKOR and Dempster-Shafer-fuzzy AHP methods were applied to estimate the favorability for copper porphyry deposits from information data layers, and the selected prospects were ranked and prioritized based on their scores obtained by each method. A comparison of the results obtained from each method with the previously discovered porphyry copper deposits and indications in the study area revealed a great match between the predicted and known deposits. The validation of results proved the ability of the proposed approach in detecting the highly favorable areas, particularly in the areas embedding known porphyry copper mineralizations. Finally, by applying the fuzzy VIKOR method to the potential areas located in the study area, the Darreh-Zar porphyry mine, as well as a region in the southeast of the Saecheshmeh mine, and a region in the south of Kouhpanj with the minimum values of Q parameter in fuzzy VOKOR method, i.e., 0.021, 0.046, and 0.166, were chosen as the best areas. The results of ranking through the Dempster-Shafer-fuzzy AHP method showed that a region in the southeast of the Sarcheshmeh mine with a priority value of 0.742, a region in the south of Kouhpanj with a priority value of 0.727, and the Dareh zar porphyry mine with a priority value of 0.653, are the best potential areas. The results of the fuzzy VIKOR and Dempster-Shafer-fuzzy AHP methods for ranking the potential areas are consistent with each other, which are validated by previously known areas as well.
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