Mineral Potential Mapping Using Satellite Images of Sentinel-2, Landsat-8 and ASTER for Iron Ore at Esfordi 1: 100000 Sheet

The Esfordi 1:100,000 geological sheet is situated at the Bafgh-Posht-e-Badam district in the central Iran structural zone. Due to the high mineral potentials in this region, many studies have been dedicated to investigate geological phenomena and seek minerals such as iron, phosphorus, lead and zinc. The present study attempts to delimit and explore new mineral potential zones in the Esfordi area through several satellite imagery data. Whereby three types of satellite imagery data including, Sentinel-2, Landsat-8 and ASTER, have been incorporated in this analysis to provide more reliable and powerful outputs. The processing algorithms such as band ratio, false color composites, principal component analysis and directional filtering were used to extract geospatial ore-bearing indicators. Note that areas covered by iron oxides were identified from the band ratios of Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 images. Based on the color composite images, the rock units that have more impact on mineralization zones were separated. To map alteration zones in association with iron oxides, selective hybrid principal component analysis of bands from ASTER sensor and sentinel-2 satellite data was utilized. By employing directional filtering on the Sentinel-2 images, lineaments were extracted. In addition, prediction-area (P-A) plot was used to determine the weight of each alteration layer and lineament in identifying mineralization zones. The results show that the argillic and propylitic alterations have the lowest association with the mineralization, meanwhile the phyllic alteration with the highest weight has played a significant role in introducing mineralized zones. Outputs show that the mineralization in the study area is mainly related to rhyolite, rhyodacite and carbonate rocks.