Mapping lithium-bearing pegmatite with short-wave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral imaging of Jingerquan Li-Be-Nb-Ta pegmatite deposit, Eastern Tianshan, NW China

• Published in: IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing 2024-01, Vol.62, p.1-1
• Main Authors: Bai, Yong, Wang, Jinlin, Zhou, Kefa, Wang, Shanshan, Jiang, Guo, Zhou, Shuguang, Cui, Shichao, Yan, Jining, Wu, Mengjuan, Ma, Xiumei, Fan, Xianglian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absorption; Analytical methods; Belts; Data acquisition; Earth surface; Electric devices; Electric vehicles; Exploration; Geology; Hybrid electric vehicles; Hyperspectral imaging; HySpex; Imaging; Imaging techniques; Industrial applications; Infrared imaging; Li-bearing pegmatite; Lithium; Mineral assemblages; Mineral exploration; Minerals; Minimum Wavelength Mapper; Niobium; Pegmatite; Portable equipment; Remote sensing; Rocks; Short wave radiation; Spatial distribution; Spectroscopy; Tantalum; Vehicles; Wavelength
• ISSN: 0196-2892; 1558-0644
• DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2023.3341496

Lithium (Li) is growing in importance and demand in several industrial applications, such as portable electric devices, electric vehicles, and hybrid electric vehicles. Li-rich pegmatites are one of the main sources of Li production in the world, so low-cost and high-efficiency exploration using remote sensing has become an important means for promoting the discovery of lithium resources. Although imaging spectroscopy has great potential for Li-rich pegmatites identification and regional delineation, due to the limitations of resolution and data acquisition, the exploration of the Earth's surface at various scales on a variety of platforms requires further research. The purpose of this study is to use a ground-based HySpex imaging hyperspectrometer to map pegmatite zones directly, developing a new approach for mineralized pegmatites exploration. To achieve this, we present the Minimum Wavelength Mapper (MWM), which combines the position and depth information of the deepest absorption feature, to give a per-pixel overview map of the Jingerquan Li-Be-Nb-Ta pegmatite deposit pit and heap. The results show that images between 2100 nm and 2450 nm provide useful information about mineral assemblages that display strong spectral features, such as Li-rich pegmatites, Li-poor pegmatites and alteration, and their spatial distribution at the surface in areas covered by the imagery. The wavelength position and the depth of Al-OH can provide an overview of the mineral assemblages and abundances, to rapidly classify possible regions of interest for further analysis.