Mineral potential mapping in frontier terrains

A successful targeting of potential mineralization in frontier terrains using mineral potential mapping in a GIS presents many challenges. There is often a lack of available data, data tends to be of poor or questionable quality, data are typically not digitized and may demonstrate incomplete data coverage. Additionally, a lack of available literature and research on known deposits with which to derive models or train data sets may further limit progress. Using both data-driven and knowledge-driven mineral potential mapping techniques, these challenges have been overcome through careful selection and refining of the training data (mineral deposits), as well as upgrading critical geological datasets (evidential layers) in order to generate country-scale mineral potential maps for orogenic gold deposit targets. The success of these mineral potential maps is measured by their ability to predict known deposits, which allows for validation of the results