The study of magnetic structures using aeromagnetic data and investigating their relationship with porphyry copper mineralization in the Shahr-e Babak, Kerman province, Iran

Studied area is located in Kerman province, Iran. This area belongs to the Urumia-Dokhtar magmatic arc (UDMA) zone. Several porphyry copper deposits were known in this magmatic arc. UDMA is marked by voluminous Tertiary volcanic sequences of up to 3000 m thickness. It seemed that these Cu occurrences are related to structures, especially major and main faults.In this study, magnetic structures were extracted by using the aeromagnetic data. This data was extracted by Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) during 1977 and 1978. The flight lines distance and the sensor altitude were about 500 and 120 m, respectively. Airborne magnetic method is among the most efficient geophysical techniques for the detection of buried anomalies.In the first step, total magnetic intensity map was prepared and reduction to pole transformation was done on it. Reduction to the pole (RTP) is a standard part of magnetic data processing method, especially for large-scale mapping. RTP operation can transform a magnetic anomaly caused by an arbitrary source into the anomaly that the same source would produce if it is located at the pole and magnetized by induction only. Interpretation of magnetic data can further be helped by RTP in order to remove the influence of magnetic latitude on the anomalies, which is significant for anomalies caused by crust. Most of the studied areas are covered by mafic volcanic rocks. These rocks produce moderate to high magnetic anomalies. In some parts, the effect of demagnetization can be observed in these rocks because of the spread of alteration in this area. A low magnetic anomaly is observed in the northern part of the studied area related to sedimentary rocks in this area. In the next step, body magnetic anomalies were extracted from reduction to pole map. A tilt angle filter used to extract magnetic lineaments was applied to the reduction to pole data. Upward continuation filter was implemented at 200 m, 500 m and 1000 m on the tilt angle map and magnetic lineaments were extracted from tilt angle maps. Several magnetic lineaments and magnetic bodies were extracted from magnetic maps (tilt angle maps and reduction to pole maps). There is good correspondence between magnetic structures and copper occurrences. The P-A curve confirms this result.