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

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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.