Mineral Prospectivity Mapping and Differential Metal Endowment Between Two Greenstone Belts in the Canadian Superior Craton

Abstract

Mineral prospectivity maps were produced for gold in two greenstone belts in the Superior geological province in Ontario, Canada, as part of the Metal Earth Project in the Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario. These maps, created using the random forest machine learning algorithm, cover the well-endowed Matheson area, which is in the Abitibi sub-province, and the less fertile Dryden area, which is in the Wabigoon sub-province. Newly identified areas for follow-up gold exploration are associated with major faults and 3D geophysical data comprising resistivity, density and susceptibility data. In addition, observations not used in mineral prospectivity mapping based on magnetotelluric, seismic and isotopic data may in part describe why the Matheson greenstone belt is more fertile with respect to gold mineralization than the Dryden greenstone belt. These observations suggest that the Matheson area has major transcurrent faults associated with conductive zones that reach the surface, many of which are associated with deeply penetrating, vertical faults. The isotopic signature of the Matheson crust also suggests it is juvenile, whereas the Dryden area is older.