Mineral and compositional mapping using airborne hyperspectral and geophysical products, North Queensland

Abstract

Large areas of prospective North-West and North Queensland have been surveyed by airborne hyperspectral sensor, HyMapÒ, and airborne geophysics as part of the ?Smart Exploration? and Smart Mining? initiatives of the Department of Mines and Energy Queensland. In particular, 25000 km2 of hyperspectral mineral and compositional map products, at 4.5 m spatial resolution, have been generated and made available via the internet. In addition, more than 130 ASTER scenes were processed and merged to produce broad scale mapping of mineral groups (Figure 1) (Thomas et al, 2008). Province-scale, accurate maps of mineral abundances and mineral chemistries were generated for North Queensland as a result of a 2 year project starting in July 2006 involving CSIRO Exploration and Mining, the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ), Geoscience Australia, James Cook University, and Curtin University. This project also involved CSIRO?s Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship, the Cooperative Research Centres for Predictive Mineral Discovery (pmd*CRC) and Landscape Environment and Mineral Exploration (LEME), and HyVista Corporation.