Development of GIS technology and singularity-based nonlinear theories for prediction of mineral deposit

矿产资源对大多数国家的可持续发展至关重要。根据目前的人口和消费趋势，世界矿物使用量预计将会增长。对矿产资源日益增长的需求正在推动对前沿地区的勘探和生产，例如被冰川沉积物、堆积物和冲积物、水、沙漠和植被覆盖的地区，这些地区掩盖了资源的面目。复盖区矿产资源预测和找矿面临盖层的多重问题，如缺乏直接观测，一些地区受盖层影响，反映成矿作用的基本地球化学和地球物理信号可能较弱、混杂或部分缺失。国际社会正在进行大量的基础性研究，以了解原生矿化、次生矿化元素在盖层中的弥散以及相应的地表介质异常的形成，以便开发更好和更强大的深部穿透方法和技术，以帮助在覆盖区进行勘探。然而，仍然没有一个连贯的议定书来估计盖层下未发现矿产资源的可能性和概率。必须开发有效的技术，以提取和整合信息，以预测覆盖地区的矿产资源。地质复杂性领域的跨学科研究表明，许多类型的极端地质过程，如地震、飓风和矿化，都是可能导致异常数量的能量释放或质量积累的特殊过程，这些能量释放或质量积累通常限于时间或空间上的狭窄间隔。由于这些奇异事件的罕见发生和有限的时间和空间范围，对它们的预测是困难的。现代地球物理、地球化学和遥感技术制作的高分辨率地图和数据大大增加了科学家绘制地球表面单一事件响应图的可能性。乘性级联过程、自组织临界性、混沌和多重分形等非线性理论的最新发展极大地推动了地球科学的发展。将奇异过程的最终产物模拟为分维或多重分维，为创新解决复杂地质资源和地质灾害问题的非线性模型和方法提供了新的科学基础。例如，申请人基于奇异性和自相似理论开发的新的尺度不变滤波方法已成功地应用于地质异常的表征和识别，以进行矿床预测。这一建议的主要目标是进一步发展基于奇点的非线性理论和信息提取/集成技术，以预测在被输送的沙漠、风化带和冰川沉积物覆盖的地区未发现的矿藏的位置。拟开展的主要工作包括：(1)建立新的数学模型，模拟乘性级联机制向上迁移导致矿体上方介质中元素浓度异常的形成；(2)基于奇点和自相似理论的新信息技术，用于从化探和地球物理数据中提取与成矿有关的弱异常和复杂异常；(3)基于乘性级联过程和空间决策建模过程的新技术，用于综合各种地质信息，以支持对覆盖区内未发现的矿藏进行预测。这些研究将通过加拿大安大略省Abitibi区和世界其他地方的案例研究进行演示。

Mineral resources are essential for sustainable development of most nations. Based on current population and consumption trends, the world’s use of minerals is expected to grow. The increasing demand for mineral resources is driving exploration and production into frontier regions such as areas covered by glacial sediments, colluvium and alluvium, water, desert and vegetation that conceal a resource from recognition. Prediction of mineral resources and mineral exploration in covered areas face multiple problems imposed by the cover such as lack of direct observation and essential geochemical and geophysical signals reflecting underneath mineralization might be weak, mixed and partially missing due to the influence of cover in some areas. There have been substantial fundamental studies underway in the international community to understand the primary mineralization, the secondary ore element dispersion in covers over mineral deposits and accordingly formation of anomalies in the surface media in order to develop better and more powerful deep-penetrating methods and technologies to help exploration in covered areas. However, there is still no coherent protocol for estimating the possibility and probability of undiscovered mineral resources beneath cover. Effective technologies must be developed for extraction and integration of information for predicting mineral resources in covered areas. Interdisciplinary studies in the field of geocomplexity have demonstrated that many types of extreme geo-processes such as earthquakes, hurricanes and mineralization are singular processes that may result in anomalous amounts of energy release or mass accumulation that, generally, are confined to narrow intervals in time or space. Due to rare occurrence and limited time and space scope, prediction of these types of singular events is difficult. High resolution maps and data created by modern geophysical, geochemical and remote sensing technologies have significantly increased the possibility for scientists to map the responses of singular events on the earth surface. Recent development of nonlinear theories such as multiplicative cascade processes, self-organized criticality, chaos and multifractals have significantly advanced geosciences. The end products of singular processes have been modeled as fractals or multifractals which have provided a new scientific foundation for innovation of nonlinear models and methods for solving complex geo-resources and geo-hazards problems. For example, new scale-invariant filtering methods developed by the applicant based on singularity and self-similarity theories have been successfully applied for characterization and identification of geo-anomalies for prediction of mineral deposits. The main objective of this proposal is to further develop singularity-based nonlinear theories and information extraction/integration techniques for predicting location of undiscovered mineral deposits in regions covered by transported deserts, regolith and glacial sediments. The main tasks are proposed to develop: (1) New mathematical models for modelling formation of anomalies of element concentration in media over mineral deposits due to upward migration of multiplicative cascade mechanisms; (2) Novel information technologies based on singularity and self-similarity theories for mineralization-associated weak and complex anomalies extraction from geochemical and geophysical data; and (3) New technologies based on multiplicative cascade processes and spatial decision modelling processes for integrating diverse geoinformation in support of predicting undiscovered mineral deposits in covered areas. The studies will be demonstrated with case studies from Abitibi district of Ontario, Canada and elsewhere in the world.