Abstract
Concepts of fractal/multifractal dimensions and fractal measure were used to derive the prior and posterior probabilities that a small unit cell on a geological map contains one or more mineral deposits. This has led to a new version of the weights of evidence technique which is proposed for integrating spatial datasets that exhibit nonfractal and fractal patterns to predict mineral potential. The method is demonstrated with a case study of gold mineral potential estimation in the Iskut River area, northwestern British Columbia. Several geological, geophysical, and geochemical patterns (Paleozoic-Mesozoic sedimentary and volcanic clastic rocks; buffer zones around the contacts between sedimentary rocks and Mesozoic intrusive rocks; a linear magnetic anomaly; and geochemical anomalies for Au and associated elements in stream sediments) were integrated with the gold mineral occurrences which have fractal and multifractal properties with a box-counting dimension of 1.335±0.077 and cluster dimension of 1.219±0.037.
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Cheng, Q., Agterberg, F.P. & Bonham-Carter, G.F. Fractal pattern integration for mineral potential estimation. Nat Resour Res 5, 117–130 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02257585
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02257585