Mineral Exploration Using GIS and Processed Aster Images

The risks of developing mineral resources need to be known as accurately as possible. This process should start at the exploration stage and continue through feasibility to the development stage. Until recently, this type of analysis was carried out manually, leading to subjective judgments. Many mining companies have built up extensive exploration geological databases, which represent significant assets to the company that have taken millions of dollars to compile. In recent times, programs of digital data compilation have been undertaken to allow the use of more probabilistic data analysis techniques, moving away from the traditional expert-system methods. The GIS is the perfect management tool for compiling spatial data. Data for this project was obtained from the W. M. Keck Earth Sciences and Mining Research Information Center, the Bureau of Land Management, The Nevada State office, ESRI datasets, and digitalized maps. A geodatabase was created to optimize the storage and management of the data. ENVI was used to process the different ASTER images of the area of interest. I also used the geostatistical analyst tool to determine the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW), which is a quick deterministic interpolator that is exact to create a spatial correlation between the samples taken and the gold content of those samples. The information stored in the geodatabase and the different referenced raster data was then put into ArcMap and later the websites were created in ArcIMS and customized using VBScripts. The result was an ArcIMS tool that can help any mineral exploration company manage in an interactive way all the necessary data required to make smart decisions about mineral exploration.