APPLICATIONS REMOTE SENSING IN

THE PROSPECTION AND EXPLORATION

MINING.

By

PhD (c) Robinson VILLANUEVA

Figure 47 Both LANDSAT ETM+ and ASTER instrument characteristics. Source
http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov
 CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSIONS (3) The used methodology has allowed
mapping alteration minerals, to use
RAW DATA
(Digital Number)
certain algorithms and to validate them
with the analyses by PIMA. The step
next is to manipulate the additional
RADIANCE
data (e.g., data geologic,
geochemistry,geophysical, emperature,
VNIR SWIR TIR
and emissivities values, etc.) and to
Crosstalk
consolidate them in a Geographic
Correction
Information Spatial with the obtained
Thermal images. This stage is related
Atmospheric
Apparent Reflectance
(Spatial and Spectral Analysis) Correction fundamentally to work field that will
allow us satisfactorily to obtain our
Spectral Analysis
proposed objectives.
(Devegetation, Spectral Emissivity Temperature
Librairies, MNF, PPI,
etc.)

Visualization &

Field Validation
Identification

Mapping Methods
(SAM, Unmixing, Endmembers
collection, Ls-Fit, etc.

GIS
Minerals alteration mapping
Antamina mine and its
surroundings

Figure 86 Abundance mapping

of Iron Oxide, dolomite, and
limestone at Antamina mine and
its surroundings. VNIR-
SWIR/ASTER data.
Minerals alteration mapping
Antamina mine and its
surroundings

Figure 87 Abundance mapping

of Alunite/Pyrophyllite (blue),
OH-altered minerals (magenta),
and calcite + OH-altered
minerals (yellow) at Antamina
mine and its surroundings.
SWIR/ASTER data.
Minerals alteration mapping
Antamina mine and its
surroundings

Figure 88 Abundance
mapping of silice (purple
3),carbonates (orange 4),
and silice + carbonates
(yellow) at Antamina mine
and its surroundings.
TIR/ASTER data.
 Figure92
Abundance
mapping of Iron
Oxide, dolomite,
and limestone at
Cerro de Pasco
mine and its
surroundings.
VNIR-
SWIR/ASTER
data.
 Figure 93
Abundance
mapping of OH-
altered minerals
(magenta),
Kaolinite (cyan),
Calcite (sea
green),
Alunite/Pyrophy
llite (blue), and
mixture of OH +
kaolinite
+calcite
(yellow) at
Cerro de Pasco
mine and its
surroundings.
SWIR/ASTER
data.
 Figure 94
Abundance
mapping of
silice
(purple
1),carbonate
s (orange 4),
and silice +
carbonates
(yellow) at
Cerro de
Pasco mine
and its
surroundings
.
TIR/ASTER
data.
 Figure 98 Abundance
mapping of Iron Oxide,
dolomite, and limestone at
Cuajone mine and its
surroundings. VNIR-
SWIR/ASTER data.
Figure 99 Abundance
mapping of
Muscovite/Illite/Smect
ite (coral), OH-altered
minerals
(magenta),Calcite (sea
green), and mixture of
OH
+muscovite/illite/smect
ite (yellow) at
Cuajone mine and its
surroundings.
SWIR/ASTER data.
 Figure 100
Abundance mapping
of silice (purple
1),carbonates (orange
4), and silice +
carbonates (yellow) at
Antamina mine and its
surroundings.
TIR/ASTER data.
Figure 43 Landsat TM bands 3, 2, 1
in RGB. This is a natural colour
composition and tends to be used for
shallow water applications such as
bathymetry mapping and sediment
load.
ASTER

LANDSAT TM

Figure 44 ASTER bands 6, 3, 1 as RGB (upper row) and Landsat TM bands 7, 4, 2 in RGB (down
row). The columns (A), (B) and (C) correspond to Antamina, Cerro de Pasco and Cuajone mines
respectively. These combinations are used for geological applications, as distinction between rock
types, bare soils, and outcrops of rocks may appear in various shades of maroon or gray. Clear water
appears dark. The alteration zones and open pits are easily differentiable. The vegetation is shows in
different shades of green
ASTER

LANDSAT TM

Figure 45 ASTER bands 3, 2, 1 as RGB (upper row) and Landsat TM bands 4, 3, 2 in RGB (down row). The
columns (A), (B) and (C) correspond to Antamina, Cerro de Pasco and Cuajone mines respectively. Red areas
indicate vegetation; white areas are open pits and alteration zones
 ASTER

LANDSAT TM

Figure 46 ASTER bands 6, 4, 2 as RGB (upper row) and Landsat TM bands 7, 5, 3 in RGB (down
row). The columns (A), (B) and (C) correspond to Antamina, Cerro de Pasco and Cuajone mines
respectively. In this case the images product of these bands combinations allows to map contacts
lithologic and geologic structures.
Figure 48 Left: Images show
the Landsat TM (1984 year) by
using the Ratios 3/1, 5/7, 4/3 as
RGB. Right Images show the
ASTER (2000 year) by using
Ratios Images 4/6, 2/1, 3/1 in
RGB applied at mines of
Antamina (Copper-Zinc Skarn
Deposit), Cuajone (Porphyry
Copper Deposit) and Cerro de
Pasco (Low Temperature, late
Zn-Pb (Bi-Ag-Cu)
mineralization and related acid
alteration replacing carbonates
rocks), Peru.
 “Hydroxyl” Image (H) “Iron oxide” Image (F) “H. H+F. F” Crosta image

Figure 51 By combining the H, H+ F, and F images as RGB, respectively, a dark (bluish) color
composite image is created on which alteration zones are unusually bright and can be interpreted as
follows: White pixels within alteration zones are potentially the most prospective in that they are
both iron-stained, and bright cyan to bluish zones are more iron-stained than argillized.
Figure 52 This Spectral Library Plots permits to shows the high reflectance in the ASTER band 4 and the
absorption in the other ASTER bands. The ASTER bands 1, 2, 3N represent the Visible Region.
Figure 53 The “H,H+F,F” ASTER image, in each mine and their surroundings studied can be
interpreted as follows: White pixels within alteration zones are potentially the most prospective, bright
cyan to bluish zones are more iron stained than argillized, and yellow pixels shown the Antamina mine
and certain targets interesting for the mineral resources exploration. The red zones are more to
argillized than iron oxidized.
Figure 54 Left: reflectance spectra of the limestone, dolomite ((CO3Ca)2CaMg)
and calcite (CO3Ca) in ASTER/SWIR region, and to right: reflectance spectra of
the epidote ((Si2O7)(SiO4)(AlFe)Ca2Al2O(OH)), quartz (SiO2), dolomite, calcite
and limestone in the ASTER/TIR region.
Figure 61 In the upper: images of the abundance EM14, EM12, EM10 (ASTER/TIR emissivity
data) as RGB, and down: endmembers spectra of the ASTER/TIR region are show. Extracted
from a subset of each mine and their surroundings studied (Antamina, Cerro de Pasco, and
Cuajone respectively).
 RAW DATA RADIANCE TAC

Antamina

Figure 74 The left

column shows the
spectral profile of
a point, of each
one of the mines
and their
Cerro de Pasco surroundings, of
the level 1B
ASTER images,
the spectral
profiles of center,
correspond to
radiance in
floating point
format and the
Cuajone images of right
column
correspond to
spectral profiles of
reflectance.
 Antamina
EMISSIVITY METHODS

Cerro de Pasco

Cuajone

Figure 75 The emissivity images

with their corresponding spectral
profiles. Reference Channel
Method.
EMISSIVITY METHODS

Figure 76 The emissivity images

with their corresponding spectral
profiles. Normalization Method
(NOR).
EMISSIVITY METHODS

Figure 76 The emissivity images

with their corresponding spectral
profiles. Alpha Emissivity
Method.
 Antamina

Temperature Images

Cuajone

Figure 78 Temperature images

of investigated areas, calculated
by three different methods: RC =
Reference Channel, NOR=
Emissivity Normalization and
RASTUS = Rastus software,
software that allows extracting Cerro de Pasco
temperature information from
ASTER/TIR data by fitting an
appropriate blackbody curve to
each image spectrum.

RC NOR RASTUS
The Antamina
Copper-Zinc
Skarn Deposit
Huari, Ancash,
Peru
The Cerro de Pasco deposit. Low temperature, late Zn-Pb-(Bi-Ag-Cu)
mineralization and related acid alteration replacing carbonate rocks at
Cerro de Pasco, Central Peru.
The CUAJONE
Porphyry Copper-
molybdenum Deposit
 Cuajone
ASTER IMAGE CIR_
Porhyries Copper-
molybdenum
deposits

Quellaveco

Toquepala

N 8 Km
ASTER:
Vegetation Index
ASTER:Alteration minerals abundance,
and rocks mapping