Application of the weights-of-evidence method in mineral resource assessments in the southern segment of the “Sanjiang metallogenic zone”, southwestern China

Abstract：The weights-of-evidence method is a discrete multivariate statistical method. It elucidates the concept of mineral resource potential areas and briefly describes the basic principle of the weights-of-evidence method. Take for example the southern segment in the "Sanjiang" metallogenic zone of southwestern China, the spatial relationship between various kinds of ore-forming information (ore-controlling factors) and mineral resource distribution is quantitatively analyzed by using the weights-of-evidence method on the basis of extraction of ore-forming information from geological, geophysical, geochemical and remote sensing geological data. Then the best ore-controlling factors are chosen as the variables for mineral resource assessments, which are used for calculating the posterior ore-forming probability of each unit. Eventually, ore-finding target areas are quantitatively delineated and evaluated according to their posterior ore-forming probabilities. This case study has illustrated that under the GIS environment the favorable mineralized areas can be effectively distinguished from the unfavorable ones through the combination of the "weights-of-evidence method" with ore-finding information so that the goal of fast quantitative delineation and assessments of the ore-finding target areas may achieved with the help of MORPAS3.0.