PRISMA geoscience products

In the frame of the projects “Exploration for base and precious metal mineral deposits through cover by means of spaceborne hyperspectral sensing” (approved by ASI in 2020) and “Evaluation of spaceborne hyperspectral PRISMA imagery for discovery of LCT-pegmatites” (approved by ASI in 2021), CSIRO Mineral Resources evaluates PRISMA’s spaceborne hyperspectral sensing data for characterising key mineral groups and/or mineral species that help to 1) map mineral alteration footprints typically associated with hydrothermal mineral deposits, and 2) classify regolith landforms.

Since the start of this project (August 2020), 448 PRISMA scenes from across the Australian continent have been downloaded from http://prisma-i.it/index.php/en/. A range of mineral maps were created from single scenes and mosaics, suggesting that PRISMA imagery is in fact suitable for geological mapping and mineral exploration.

The Rocklea Dome area (Hamersley Basin, Western Australia) is one of CSIRO Mineral Resources’ main case study sites to demonstrate applications of EOI for geological mapping and mineral exploration. In the Rocklea Dome area, bedrock lithologies can be discriminated by applying band ratios to the SWIR data cube and 2) channel iron deposits as well as other regolith landforms can be mapped applying band ratios to the VNIR and SWIR data cube. Figure 1 (Laukamp, 2022) demonstrates that major lithologies of the Rocklea Dome area shown in the simplified geological map (Fig. 1a) are clearly mapped by the respective hyperspectral geoscience products.

Mineral exploration and mining industry has expressed strong interest in the PRISMA hyperspectral satellite imagery and CSIRO Mineral Resources is providing industry in Australia with advise, based on the very promising evaluation described above. An example is the current project with Australasian Gold who are exploring for Li-bearing pegmatites in the Mt Peake and Barrow Creek pegmatite fields in the Northern Territory (Australia).

References:

Laukamp, C. (2022): Geological Mapping using mineral absorption feature-guided band-ratios applied to PRISMA satellite hyperspectral level 2D imagery.- IGARSS 2022, 17.-22.07.22, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.