Interpretation of multi-media geochemical datasets using GIS: Application to SW Cape Breton Island.

A multimedia geochemical data set, collected in SW Cape Breton Island, was spatially and statistically analyzed to enhance the geochemical understanding and to evaluate the mineral potential of the area. The data sets, which include stream water and balsam fir twig surveys, along with the bedrock geology and the topography with drainage, were integrated and spatially analyzed in a geographic information system. Although stream sediment geochemistry is a well-established sample media in mineral exploration, little work on the statistical analysis of stream water has been done to determine the controls of the geochemistry of the water and to aid mineral exploration. Yule's coefficient was used in two attempts, each with different zones of influence, to compare the stream water and the balsam fir twig survey. The weights of evidence technique is a probability based approach for locating mineral potential using the spatial distribution of known mineral occurrences. The explanatory variables used to produce a mineral potential map included the underlying bedrock geology, copper residuals from the stream water geochemical survey and the proximity to structural faults. This approach calculates a weight for each class in the multi-class catchment basin maps for copper. (Abstract shortened by UMI.