Angelo Mangiardi

Lineament analysis has become quite prevalent in many mineral exploration programs. The significance oflineaments within these programs is based on the spatial association that exists between mineral deposits and curvilinear geological structures. Realizing the potential that can be drawn from lineament analysis, Barrick Gold has constructed continental scale lineaments as evidential data layers for their regional targeting programs. The aim ofthis study was to determine if Barrick's lineament dataset could be used to positively discriminate for large-scale gold deposits (i.e. plus 5 million troy ounces) found throughout Australia. Based on Bayesian probability theory, a weights of evidence analysis was utilized to quantify the spatial association between the distribution of Australian gold deposits and two lineament features, lineament corridors and intersections. Results indicated that lineament corridors situated within Australia's Yilgarn geological province exhibited an optimal spatial association within 15 km from each respective lineament. Probability values from the intersection analysis indicated an optimal intersection threshold of 15 km for the entire Australian continent. The results of this study validate the inclusion of lineament intersections as a viable evidential layer for Barrick's regional targeting criteria.