Theories and Approaches on Scientific Targeting at Mineral Deposits

Scientific targeting is a successful key for exploration of both the concealed and new type of mineral deposits.Geological anomaly areas with complex structures in the crust can be defined as preferable ore-finding areas based on the theory of ore-forming geoanomaly.Areas where critical ore-forming factors such as thermal energy and ore-fluid source,plumbing fluid systems,trap (depositional) site,and fluid seal (cap) are well developed within the preferable ore-finding areas can be defined as potential mineral resource areas based on the theory of ore-forming system.Areas where association of ore deposits may exist can be defined as perspective ore-finding areas based on the theory of ore-forming series.This study demonstrates that both hierarchy and heterogeneity of the spatial and temporal distribution of ore deposits and their power-law size frequency distribution in individual province as well as the largest deposits discovered generally in the early phases of mineral exploration of a terrain lay a theoretical foundation of the telescoping ore deposits at multiple exploration scales.Ambiguity and uncertainty of ore-finding information from single discipline make it necessary to explore ore deposits using integrated ore-finding information from multi-disciplines such as geology,geochemistry,geophysics and remote sensing image.Probabilistic modeling techniques based on both ore-forming system model and integrated ore-finding pattern are the best approaches to assess mineral potentials of ore-finding target areas from two aspects of both ore-forming essence and phenomenon.