Finding Porphyry Copper with zircon trace elements & hyperspectral display

铜矿发现率落后于世界需求。在世界火环中寻找铜的一种方法是测量锆石的成分，锆石是一种持久的矿物，集中在流沙中，分布在矿床下方很远的地方。从一杯沙子中取出的100个锆石构成了一个样品。人们大多了解表明可能存在矿藏的锆石化学特征，但大自然是复杂的。在1万个分析中，每个颗粒的26个化学数据通道之外，还有7个实验室成像数据层没有以方便的方式携带。地质学家需要智能计算机系统来发现33个通道之间的有用关系，并发现样品内部和样品之间的关系，以找到更多可开采的铜。

Copper mine discovery rates lag behind world needs. One way to find copper in the World’s Ring of Fire is to measure compositions of zircons which are durable minerals concentrated in stream sands and spreadout long distances below a deposit. 100s of zircon from a cup of sand constitute a sample. Zircon chemical features that indicate possible mines are mostly understood, but nature is complicated. Beyond the 26 channels of chemical data for each grain in the 10,000s of analyses, there are 7 layers of lab imaging data that are not carried along in a convenient way. Geologists need smart computer systems to find useful relationships among the 33 channels and to discover relations within and between samples to find more mineable copper.