Determination of geochemical anomalous areas using U-statistics modeling of multi-element principal factor values (U-PCA) related to gold mineralization of shear zone

Identification of geochemical anomaly areas is a major aim in analyzing the stream sedimentary geochemical data. In this paper, a novel integrated method based on the principal component analysis (PCA) and U- statistical method has been used for Au mineral potential mapping in the Saghez area. Firstly, the PCA as a multivariate dimension reduction method has been applied for extracting the multivariate geochemical signatures and detecting the paragenesis elements in the Saqqez sheared gold mineralization area. The mineralization principal factor was determined based on the rotated component matrix and the paragenesis elements of Sn, W, As and Sb relevant to the ore-forming process were identified. The obtained mineralization principal factor calculated based PCA method has been modeled for increasing the exploration success and enhancing the geochemical halos. For mapping the multi-element mineralization targets, the U statistical method was applied on the mineralization principal factor and the geochemical populations were obtained and delineated. This scenario as a geochemical population modeling method properly could mapped the sheer Au anomaly areas and 5 mineralization zones amongst the 6 Au occurrences were identified. The conventional U spatial method has also been utilized on the Au element and the obtained geochemical sub-populations were interpreted and the geochemical anomalies were mapped. Finally, the U-values modeling of mineralization principal factor was compared to the results of U spatial statistical method of Au elements. The novel proposed approach enhanced the exploratory prediction rate and displayed more proper results for mineral potential mapping.