Spatial Distribution Prediction of Laterite Bauxite in Bolaven Plateau Using GIS

Mineral resources are the most important natural resources for developing countries. Bauxite is an indispensable mineral resource for industrial production. Potential assessment of bauxite is an important issue in Indochina Peninsula. In this paper, the factors affecting the mineralization of the lateritic bauxite are analyzed. The collected spatial data are processed and the information is extracted to obtain the spatial extent of favorable constraints. Then, the spatial distribution of potential bauxites on the Bolaven Plateau has been investigated with a Boolean modeling process in GIS environment on the basis of some constraints such as rock, elevation, topographical features and vegetation coverage. Finally, based on the hydrogeological conditions and alteration information of Fe3+ and OH-, the bauxite mapping has been carried out. There are twenty bauxite metallogenic areas delineated, with a total area of 750 km2, which is 5% of the entire study area. This has greatly reduced the scope of the field investigation. Seven of the twenty predicted areas were validated in the field and six of them were found to have bauxite mineralization. Using the methods proposed in this study, the potential bauxite for the entire Bolaven Plateau could be achieved much more cheaply than the traditional methods. This study also provides a good idea for the prediction of laterite bauxite in the other regions of the Indochina Peninsula.