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。对矿产资源日益增长的需求正在推动勘探和生产进入前沿地区，例如被冰川沉积物、崩积层和冲积层、水、沙漠和植被覆盖的地区，这些地区隐藏着无法识别的资源。覆盖区的矿产资源预测和矿产勘查面临着覆盖带来的诸多问题。了解原生矿化、次生矿元素在矿床盖层中的分散和地表介质中异常的形成是发展更好、更强的深穿透方法和勘探技术的基础问题。然而，仍然没有一个连贯一致的协议来估计盖层下未被发现的矿产资源的可能性和概率。 新近发展起来的地质复杂性理论和方法为描述地震、飓风和成矿作用等极端地质过程提供了强有力的工具。研究表明，这些奇异过程可能导致异常量的能量释放或质量积累，通常局限于时间或空间上的狭窄间隔。现代地球物理、地球化学和遥感技术所产生的高分辨率地图和数据大大增加了科学家绘制地球表面奇异事件响应图的可能性。加拿大政府已经投资并将继续投资2亿美元，支持能源和矿产地理测绘项目（GEM，2008-2020年），以产生大量数据，支持增加对北部自然资源的勘探。申请人基于非线性理论开发的新的尺度不变滤波方法的最近开发和应用已经显示出处理用于预测矿床的大数据的良好潜力。 这项建议的主要目标是发展新的非线性理论和地理信息系统技术，以预测被搬运的冰川沉积物和风化层覆盖的地区中未发现的矿藏的位置。主要任务是开发和应用：（1）模拟因倍增级联机制向上迁移而形成矿床上方介质中元素浓度异常的新数学模型;（2）基于自相似理论的新信息技术，用于从地球化学、地球物理和遥感数据中提取与矿化相关的弱异常和复杂异常;和（3）基于乘法级联过程和空间决策建模过程的新技术，用于整合各种地理信息，以支持预测覆盖区内未发现的矿藏。案例研究将侧重于加拿大安大略北方Abitibi地区的铜-金-银矿床。

Mineral resources are essential for sustainable development of most nations. 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 faces multiple problems imposed by the cover. To understand the primary mineralization, the secondary ore element dispersion in covers over mineral deposits and formation of anomalies in the surface media are fundamental questions for developing better and more powerful deep-penetrating methods and exploration technologies. However, there is still no coherent protocol for estimating the possibility and probability of undiscovered mineral resources beneath cover. The newly developed theories and methods of geocomplexity have provided powerful tools for charactering extreme geo-processes such as earthquakes, hurricanes and mineralization. Studies have demonstrated that these singular processes may result in anomalous amounts of energy release or mass accumulation that, generally, are confined to narrow intervals in time or space. 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. The Canadian Government has invested and will continue to invest 200 million dollars to support the Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM from 2008-2020) project to produce vast amount of data to support increased exploration of natural resources in the North. Recent development and applications of new scale-invariant filtering methods developed by the applicant based on nonlinear theory have shown good potential for processing big data for prediction of mineral deposits. The main objective of this proposal is to develop new nonlinear theory and GIS techniques for predicting location of undiscovered mineral deposits in regions covered by transported glacial sediments and regolith. The main task is to develop and apply: (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 self-similarity theory for mineralization-associated weak and complex anomalies extraction from geochemical, geophysical and remotely sensed 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 case studies will focus on copper-gold-silver deposits in the Abitibi district of northern Ontario, Canada.