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Extraction of Mineralization-Related Anomalies from Gravity and Magnetic Potential Fields for Mineral Exploration Targeting: Tongling Cu(–Au) District, China

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Abstract

Extraction of mineralization-related anomalies for mineral exploration targeting lies in the interpretation of geological anomalies that indicate favorable ore-forming criteria and major ore-controlling criteria from potential field data, based on the metallogenic model of a study area. The integrated geophysical methods of bi-dimensional empirical mode decomposition and power spectrum analysis were applied to Bouguer gravity and original airborne magnetic data to extract (or decompose) multisource geological anomalies and estimate approximate depths of those anomalies for further interpreting multisource mineralization-related anomalies in the Tongling Cu(–Au) district of China. The results (i.e., decomposed anomaly components for interpretation) can be briefly summarized as follows: (1) high-frequency components (i.e., gravity component BIMFG1 and magnetic component BIMFM1) depict the beaded-cyclic distribution of deposit-scale geological anomalies (~ 3 to 4 km deep), indicating shallow subsurface intrusions including dykes, stocks and apophysis; (2) intermediate-frequency components (i.e., gravity component BIMFG2, BIMFG3 and magnetic component BIMFM2) depict the interaction of magmatism and major NE-trending capping structures at shallow upper-crust (~ 6 to 8 km deep), both of which comprise the tectonic–magmatic–metallogenic system in the Tongling Cu(–Au) district; (3) intermediate-low-frequency components (i.e., gravity component BIMFG4 and magnetic component BIMFM3) further verify the coupling mechanism of major capping structures and magmatism at middle upper-crust (~ 9 km deep), indicating the trend and distribution of magma chambers expanding toward depths; (4) low-frequency components (i.e., gravity component ResG and magnetic component ResM), generally seen as the background information, depict district-scale structures and the distribution of magma chamber at depths. By combining above-mentioned geophysical features and the dataset of Cu(–Au) deposits in the study area, three target zones associated with district-scale structures can be identified. Target zone (I) is distributed along the Tongguanshan anticline, and two other target zones [i.e., zone (II) and zone (III)] are distributed along the Yongcunqiao–Shujiadian anticline. Similar geological and mineralization-related anomalies, represented by above-mentioned target zones, provide exploration targeting criteria for mineral exploration in the study area.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief (Prof. John Carranza) and Prof. Lizhen Cheng (Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue) and the anonymous reviewer for the detailed comments, and Prof. John Carranza gave his constructive comments for the abstract about this paper to the RFG 2018 Conference, Master Min Ma gave us comments on the bi-dimensional empirical mode decomposition method. The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41572318), China geology survey project (Grant No. 12120115034401), and the National Key Research Projects (Grant No. 2016YFC0600100; Grant No. 2016YFC0600500).

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  1. School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Gaoshen Tao, Gongwen Wang & Zhiqiang Zhang

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  1. Gaoshen Tao
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Correspondence to Gongwen Wang.

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Tao, G., Wang, G. & Zhang, Z. Extraction of Mineralization-Related Anomalies from Gravity and Magnetic Potential Fields for Mineral Exploration Targeting: Tongling Cu(–Au) District, China. Nat Resour Res 28, 461–486 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-018-9397-0

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