SPECTRAL UNMIXING AND THE POTENTIAL OF WORLDVIEW-3 SATELLITE DATA FOR PEGMATITE EXPLORATION

Abstract

Remote Sensing has been successfully applied in the identification of pegmatitic targets. However, the spatial resolution of open data satellites, which is often much larger than the outcrop size of the target mineral or rock, has been a recurrent challenge in this scientific field. This restricts remote sensing methods that are dependent on large outcrop sizes for successful identification. This work applied spectral unmixing approach on WorldView-3 satellite imagery, to evaluate the potential for high spatial resolution imagery on the Tysfjord Niobium-Yttrium-Fluorine (NYF) pegmatite field (Norway). The preliminary results of this research are encouraging and make a strong contribution to the scientific field of mineral exploration.