The role of digital imagery in characterising different styles of mineralization

A total of one hundred and twenty three gold-bearing mineral deposits in the Charters Towers area west of Townswille, Queensland, Australia were initially classified into four named and unnamed separate vein styles, with different trends and alteration patterns, a breccia-style deposit and placer gold deposits. The area has vein deposits in Ordovician and Silurian granitoids and breccia-style in the Carboniferous volcanics. In this paper a modeling of these deposits is described using geological mapping, landscape analysis and digital imagery (Landsat TM and geophysics) to improve the classification and identification of possible new target for exploration.