GIS application in nonferrous metal resource prediction in Chifeng region, Inner Mongolia, China

Chifeng region is located in the southeastern part of Inner Mongolia, north China. It spans both the metallogenic belts of Greater Xing'an Mountain and Yin Mountain. Because of the unique metallogenic background, Chifeng is a region of high nonferrous metal mineral potential in China. In this paper, multi-sources data sets including geological, geochemical, gravity, airborne magnetic and Landsat ETM+ data were integrated for mineral potential mapping by using GIS. technology. Under the, guidance of regional metallogenic regularities and the geo-anomaly ore forming theory applying, nine diagnostic deposits recognition criteria layers are extracted from those geo-data sets And then, these deposits recognition criteria layers are combined in the weight of evidence (WoIE) model which uses the spatial correlations between the evidence lays and the known mineral occurrences to calculation the posterior probability map and indentify the delineate the prospective area. The result shows that there are three NE-SW trending prospective belts in the north of Chifeng, while one NW-SE striking favorable ore-forming belt in the south of this region. 86% known mineral occurrences containing 95% of mount metal resources are fallen in the four belts. The authors proposed further exploration work should be carried out primarily in these areas.