ISSN:
1573-8981
Keywords:
Mineral resource assessment
;
Silver-bearing polymetallic deposit
;
Methodology of quantitative assessment
;
Monte Carlo simulation
;
Undiscovered deposit
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Geosciences
Notes:
Abstract We propose an information-structure-analysis (ISA) method to quantify the correlations between quantitative and qualitative variables as well as within each type of variable. This method is applied to the evaluation of mineral resources in the western Zheijiang Province of China. The district contains a number of silver-bearing Fe−Cu−Pb−Zn mineral deposits near igneous complexes and Fe→Cu→Pb→Zn zones away from the complexes. Silver anomalies occur not only in the known Fe−Cu−Zn−Pb deposits, but also in the country rock, suggesting the possible existence of silver deposits far from the igneous complexes. The tonnage distribution of silver is modeled by Monte Carlo simulation. This simulation is conducted on the basis of the correlations between silver (Ag) and lead (Pb), since no known data on silver is available. The known tonnage distribution of lead in 11 control cells was used to approximate the tonnage distribution of silver in the Monte Carlo simulation. With ISA and Monte Carlo methods, the total amount of potential polymetallic resources in 49 cells in the western Zhejiang Provice is predicted. Significantly, a deposit with about 24 tonnes of silver has been found within our exploration target area.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02256887
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