Geologic datasets for weights-of-evidence analysis in northeast Washington: 2. Mineral databases

Abstract

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Assessment method for epithermal gold deposits in northeast Washington State using weights-of-evidence GIS modeling

“…In step 3, the evidence themes were assembled from several geological, geochemical, and other databases that describe aspects of the mineral deposit model in the study area. Evidence themes assembled include a digital geological map (Boleneus and Causey, 2000) containing lithologic units, dikes, folds, and faults and digital geochemical themes consisting of placer gold mines (Boleneus, 1999a) and gold-silver stream silt analysis (Boleneus and Chase, 1999). The geological map was manually compiled at a scale of 1:100,000 by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (Wash. DNR) in the 1980's-1990's and converted into digital form.…”

“…Gold placers are a likely indicator because winter precipitation is heavy and spring stream flow is strong. A total of 67 placer sites were obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey MRDS and US Bureau of Mines MILS databases (Boleneus, 1999a). These include all placer sites available from within the study area.…”

“…Selection of the appropriate training sites within the limits of the study area is key to the analysis. Training sites were selected from the U.S.Geological Survey's Mineral Resource Database System (USGS, MRDS) (Boleneus, 1999a). Two other significant sites, Knob Hill Mine and K-2, were included from the US Bureau of Mines MAS/MILS database (USBM, 1995).…”

“…Four other reports present geological and mineral activity databases used. The first includes the training set of 50 epithermal deposits and the 67 gold placer sites (Boleneus, 1999a). Hyndman and Campbell (1999) prepared the digital database of mining claims used for mineral industry exploration activity data.…”