A spatial data mining method for mineral resources potential assessment

On the basis of multi-source geology spatial database and traditional spatial data mining, a spatial data mining method for mineral resources potential assessment was proposed in this paper, which the spatial characteristics and uncertainty of geology data were reasonable to consider. The method mainly include continuous geological spatial data discretization, spatial relationship abstracting and attribute transforming, mining metallogenic association rules and quality assessment, comprehensive evaluation of metallogenic association rules and potential assessment. Finally, the experiment of mineral potential assessment for iron deposits was performed in Eastern Kunlun, Qinghai province, China, using spatial data mining method and weights-of-evidence model, respectively. The results indicate that the prediction accuracy of spatial data mining was obvious higher than weights-of-evidence model´s, the method is suitable for mineral resources potential assessment and its effectiveness is good.