Synergetic use of remote sensing and geophysical data for exploration of porphyry copper deposits, using GIS

Darrehzar porphyry copper deposit is situated in the Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic assemblage of central Iran. In this paper, the integration of multiple geodata sets has been carried out using geographic information system for mapping lithology or hydrothermally altered rocks and also in selecting the best discriminating data elements for exploration of porphyry copper deposits located in areas with similar geological setting and climatic conditions. Principal component analysis is found useful for reducing large data sets into a few principal components. The integration of various geophysical data with SPOT image data through GIS has shown that the hydrothermal alteration and lithology can be mapped with more efficiency.