Remote sensing data for Geological mapping and gold prospecting of Inteet area, northern Sudan

Abstract

The mineral exploration has improved in the last decades, today there are different methods of remote exploration, that are applied in mining industry worldwide, helping to discover ore minerals deposits in zones that have not access to them. The study area of this article is located about 400 km from Khartoum, characterized by low reliefs covered by sand and gravely sand. The study wants to carry out the geological mapping and the prospective zones using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Sudan is characterized by geological formations over inaccessible areas, in that way the remote sensing technique has a great value in these conditions, saving time and money. The used methodology has been divided into three phases: Pre-field office work, field work and post-field work. The processing of the satellite images includes color band composites, in order to obtain the lithological and geological features, the different types of rocks were defined by a different color. Obtaining the following rock types: High-grade gneisses and migmatites described to comprise the basement complex, ophiolitic mafic-ultramafic rocks that appear in the northern and southern sides of the area, metasediments that cover most of the study area, syn-orogenic intrusions that cut the older mafic-ultramafic units and the metavolcanosedimentary sequences, post-orogenic intrusions and gold mineralization. Based on the image analysis results of Landsat 8 OLI, 32 ore samples were collected to analysis gold and pathfinder elements obtaining high anomalies results for Au, Ag, Cu, Zn, Pb and Fe.