Mineral prospectivity mapping: a potential technique for sustainable mineral exploration and mining activities – a case study using the copper deposits of the Tagmout basin, Morocco

Abstract

Mineral prospectivity mapping (MPM) based on the principle of geometric mean was applied to stream sediment geochemical, fault density, and aeromagnetic data from Tagmout basin, Morocco to determine new areas for optimizing copper exploration. The application of a fuzzy operator using stream sediment data, factor analysis, and fault density map, allowed weights to be assigned to these parameters so that the MPM function can process them to indicate the most favorable zones of copper mineralization. The model's accuracy as evaluated using a normalized density index (Nd with value 1.22) shows the reliability of the method. The potential copper concentration areas represent 8.22% of the entire basin of which 30% are concentrated in the western portion of the basin and other significant areas are in the southwest and northeast portions. The results indicate that MPM is a powerful technique for planning exploration programs that aim for sustainable mining activities.