AbstractIn this paper, we present the detection of ore‐forming elements migrated from soil and rock to vegetation leaves using hyperspectral data. The rock, soil (C, B, and A layer), and vegetation (root, stem, and leaf) samples with the measurements of spectra and element concentrations in the vertical section of the abandoned pits were collected. The wavelet approach is applied to analyze the correlations between spectral features and element concentrations. The results show that the significant correlations are found at a lower order mother wavelets such as Haar. Moreover, the significant correlations are negative between Cu and Mo elements and the wavelet energy vector of the soil and rock to vegetation leaves spectrum. The results also show that ore‐forming elements migrated from rock and soil to vegetation leaves can be detected using hyperspectral data in the study area.