Investigation of Cu, Mo, Pb, and Zn geochemical behavior and geological interpretations for Parkam porphyry copper syste
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Investigation of Cu, Mo, Pb, and Zn geochemical behavior and geological interpretations for Parkam porphyry copper system, Kerman, Iran S. S. Ghannadpour & A. Hezarkhani
Received: 14 August 2014 / Accepted: 19 November 2014 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2014
Abstract A well-known algorithm of clustering is Kmeans by which the data are divided into K classes based upon a distance criterion. In this study, we apply the K-means method for classifying data derived from exploration boreholes in the Parkam deposit. The optimum K has been calculated and then the data have been clustered and the relative geochemical behavioral characteristics analyzed. The criterion used for determining the optimum K ranged in number of classes from K=3 to K=10, and afterwards, we analyzed the derived classifications in order to choose the optimum K. Results showed that class numbers of K=3 in the case of Cu and Mo, K=4 in the case of Cu and Pb, and K=3 in the case of Cu and Zn were optimized class numbers. After clustering, the increasing Cu grade values resulted in a significant increase in Mo grades, a significant decrease in Pb grades followed by an increase, and the Zn grades varying comparable to Pb. With regard to the relationships between these elements, it can be concluded that the meteoric waters promoted the mobilization of Pb and Zn from the potassic zone to the phyllic, but the meteoric waters were not effective enough to cause the mobilization of Cu, and this element together with Mo remained immobile.
Keywords K-means . Clustering . Cu . Mo . Pb . Zn . Parkam
S. S. Ghannadpour : A. Hezarkhani (*) Department of Mining & Metallurgical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction Considering the Miduk and Parkam areas located within the Kerman copper belt (500 km length and containing 35 porphyry systems) and the presence of copper-rich resources in the region (K.I.e.c. engineers 2009), the necessity of determining the statistical characteristics, such as mean grade value and variance, and also the geochemical behavior of Cu, Mo, Pb, Zn, and Fe within these deposits is obvious. The geochemical data were obtained from samples from exploration drilling, coring, and in uneconomic parts of the Parkam exploration area and were treated by initial statistical characteristics (Ghannadpour and Hezarkhani 2012; Ghannadpour et al. 2013a, 2014). In addition to Cu and Mo, which are major ore-forming elements in porphyry systems, Pb and Zn have also been examined as these have a significant impact on estimating the extent to which a primary geochemical halo is expanded (Gent et al. 2011). In some cases, Pb and Zn are observed to show concentrations of ore grade (Jébrak 2006). Hence, to make a more effective estimation of geochemical halo boundaries in porphyry systems, relative behavioral characteristics of these elements need to be investigated. Thus, in the present research, methods of data mining sciences were utilized for performing the an
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