Using ETM+ Landsat Imagery to determine alterationzones in Sari Gunayeipithermalgold deposit, Kordestan

The Sari Gunay epithermal gold deposit is located in 40 km northeast of Qorveh town, in south-east of the Kordestan province. The mineralization at this deposit is epithermal gold in character, accompanied by arsenic and antimonyminerals. The mineralization system is associated with the strongly altered Neogenedacite porphyry. The study area covers approximately 400 square kilometres, surrounding the Sari Gunay deposit. Different image processing techniques such as Principal Component Analysis, Crosta and Matched Filtering were applied on ETM+ satellite images to determine hydrothermal alteration associatedwith the epithermal gold mineralization. Using above mentioned techniques, hydroxyl and iron oxide minerals were highlighted and their distributionswere mapped. In order to define the areas affected by hydrothermal alteration,False Colour Composite images of these maps were produced. Finally in order to validate the resulting maps, a comparison was done among different processing methods.

Keywords:

Alteration , Epithermal gold deposit , Sari Gunay , ETM+