Application of GIS to Geo-anomaly-Based Delineation of Mineral Resources

In this paper, the Dongchuan type copper deposits are taken as an example to illustrate the application of GIS to the geo anomaly based delineation of mineral resources. The following eight steps are listed in this paper to delineate the permissive and preferable ore finding areas: (1) the analysis of favorable prospecting index using linear and planar geo anomalies; (2) the analysis of favorable prospecting index using combined anomalies; (3) the construction of a GIS based spatial model for mineral prognosis; (4) the delineation of the permissive ore finding area; (5) the determination of the synthetic anomalies and numerical range for the prediction of the favorable prospecting areas, and the determination of the weights of these two variables; (6) the superimposition of all the selected anomalies and the construction of the superimposition map; (7) the determination of unifying criterion of favorable prospective areas at various levels, and (8) the delineation of favorable prospective areas. Finally, this paper offers a detailed discussion of the results in the forecasting of Dongchuan type copper deposits.