Mapping porphyry copper potential with a fuzzy model, northern Shahr-e-Babak, Iran

Fuzzy set theory is applied to prospecting the porphyry copper deposits in the north of Shahr-e-Babak, Iran. The geological layers incorporated into the porphyry copper model include: geochemical and geophysical anomalies; bedrock geology; proximity to east-west lineaments; proximity to granitic and intermediate intrusive bodies; and proximity to alteration haloes. These data were processed in a raster GIS and fuzzy membership functions were evaluated for each data layer. Five intermediate maps were integrated using the fuzzy gamma operator with a value of 0.90 for gamma. Areas with high to moderate favourableness encompass well-known porphyry copper deposits, namely Meiduk and Sara. Areas with low to moderate favourableness are justified for further exploration investigations.