Stream sediment geochemical anomaly mapping based on the dynamic enhanced weighted drainage catchment basin method for mineral exploration

• Published in: Journal of geochemical exploration Vol. 264; p. 107535
• Main Authors: Liu, Chang, Zhu, Renwei, Li, Shi, Cui, Zijia, Chen, Jianping, Zhao, Jie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.09.2024
• Subjects: Geochemical exploration; Mineral prospecting; Sedimentary manganese deposit; Stream sediment geochemical anomaly mapping; Mineral prospecting; Stream sediment geochemical anomaly mapping; Sedimentary manganese deposit; Geochemical exploration
• ISSN: 0375-6742; 1879-1689
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gexplo.2024.107535

Accurately determining the presence of subterranean deposits is challenging due to the intricate geological processes that give rise to these deposits. The use of stream sediment geochemical data to identify and map geochemical anomalies is a widely employed technique in mineral exploration and offers a robust indicator of the possible presence of mineral deposits. This research presents a comparison between the weighted drainage catchment basin (WDCB) technique and its improved version, the dynamic enhanced weighted drainage catchment basin (DE-WDCB) approach, in the context of mineral exploration. We constructed a model of the catchment basin for the study area, clarified the upstream and downstream relationships between the basins, determined the background value in each basin via the trend surface method, and carried out geochemical anomaly mapping based on the DE-WDCB method. Then we conducted two comparative experiments using the WDCB method, employing both dynamic and nondynamic classification methods for anomaly classification. Finally, we compared the mineralization of the three methods and find that the DE-WDCB method exhibited superior performance in identifying sedimentary manganese ore anomalies, followed by the dynamic grading WDCB method and the nondynamic grading WDCB method. These results indicated that the DE-WDCB method revealed excellent performance when applied to stream sediment geochemistry in prospecting, hence enhancing its utility in mineral resource exploration. •The DE-WDCB method is designed to enhance weak anomalies.•The DE-WDCB method performs better in prospecting.•Dynamic anomaly classification outperforms in-situ anomaly enhancement.