Application of Pattern Recognition Methods to Study Spatial Localization of Polymetallic Mineralization in the Altai–Sayan Region

Abstract—The Altai–Sayan mountain-folded belt is analyzed with the purpose of (1) revealing peculiarities of localization of large-scale polymetallic mineralization in the lineament-block structure of the region and (2) determining the geophysical and geomorphic peculiarities of the locations of these deposits using the Cora-3 pattern recognition algorithm. The lineament-block structure of the region is determined using morphostructural zoning. A spatial correlation between large and superlarge polymetallic deposits and morphostructural nodes is revealed. Based on this correlation, a dichotomy problem is solved, which is to divide the entire set of nodes in the region into two classes—ore-bearing and non-ore bearing. For this purpose, we used the Cora-3 logical recognition algorithm with training, for which the input data are geomorphological and geophysical parameters of the nodes. The training set of the algorithm was composed of the nodes where large and superlarge polymetal deposits are known. At the training stage, the algorithm identified the sets of the characteristic features that are peculiar to each class. Based on these features, all the nodes in the region were divided into ore-bearing and non-ore-bearing ones. As a result of recognition, the nodes in which deposits of the considered types and sizes are known were classified as ore-bearing, and, in addition to them, another 11 nodes were identified that meet the features determined in the work and can be considered potentially ore-bearing.