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Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451
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Sub-pixel mineral mapping of a porphyry copper belt

using EO-1 Hyperion data
Mahdieh Hosseinjani Zadeh a,, Majid H. Tangestani b,1, Francisco Velasco Roldan c,2,
Inaki Yusta c,2
a

Department of Ecology, Institute of Science and High Technology and Environmental Science, Graduate University of Advanced Technology, Kerman, Iran
b
Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, 71454, Iran
c
Departamento de Mineraloga y Petrologa, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnologa, Universidad del Pas Vasco (UPV/EHU), Apdo. 644, Bilbao E-48080, Spain
Received 23 April 2013; received in revised form 2 November 2013; accepted 14 November 2013
Available online 22 November 2013

Abstract
The main aim of the present study was to examine the feasibility of the EO-1 Hyperion data in discriminating and mapping diagnostic
alteration minerals around porphyry copper deposits (PCDs), veried by eld surveys and laboratory analyses. A partial sub-pixel
method, mixture tuned matched ltering (MTMF), was implemented on a pre-processed and calibrated Hyperion dataset. The tested
area is situated at the Central Iranian Volcano-Sedimentary Complex, where abundant porphyry copper deposits like Sarcheshmeh, Darrehzar, and Sereidun are located. The characteristic alteration minerals identied by Hyperion data included biotite, muscovite, illite,
kaolinite, goethite, hematite, jarosite, pyrophyllite, and chlorite. Discrimination of these minerals especially biotite and iron oxide (hematite and goethite) can provide valuable evidences for PCD exploration projects. Results revealed that Hyperion data prove to be powerful
in discriminating and mapping various types of alteration zones while the data were subjected to adequate pre-processing.
2013 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Hyperspectral remote sensing; Image processing; EO-1 Hyperion; MTMF; Porphyry copper; Alteration

1. Introduction
Hyperspectral remote sensing acquires reectance or
emittance data in many contiguous spectral bands such
that for each pixel a complete spectrum can be derived
from the covered wavelength region. The advent of airborne and space-borne hyperspectral remote sensing sensors which provide near-laboratory quality reectance
spectra indicates a new era of remote sensing.
Airborne hyperspectral data have been available to
researchers since the early 1980s and their importance for
Corresponding author. Fax: +98 3426226617.

E-mail addresses: mh.hosseinjani@gmail.com (M. Hosseinjani Zadeh),

tangestani@susc.ac.ir (M.H. Tangestani), francisco.velasco@ehu.es (F.V.
Roldan), i.yusta@ehu.es (I. Yusta).
1
Fax: +98 7112284572.
2
Fax: +34 946013500.

mineral mapping and lithological discrimination are well documented (Kruse, 1988; Kruse et al., 1990, 1993, 2003; Rowan
et al., 2000; 2004; Van Der Meer, 2000; Van Ruitenbeek et al.,
2006; Van Der Meer et al., 2012). However, acquiring these
datasets is often very dicult, incur relatively high cost per
data acquisition, and have limited availability.
Launch of the EO-1 in November 2000 introduced
hyperspectral sensing of the Earth from space through
the Hyperion system. Hyperion has a single telescope and
two spectrometers in visible near-infrared (VNIR) and
short-wave infrared (SWIR) covering the 4002500 nm
with 242 spectral bands at approximately 10 nm spectral
bandwidth and 30 m spatial resolution (Liao et al., 2000).
These spectral bands could provide abundant information
about many important earth-surface minerals. The VNIR
region is useful for discriminating minerals exposed at gossans, such as goethite, hematite and jarosite. The SWIR
region, on the other hand, covers spectral features of

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M. Hosseinjani Zadeh et al. / Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451

hydroxyl-bearing minerals as well as CO bearing minerals

like phylosilicates, sulfates, and carbonates which are common to many geologic rock units and hydrothermal alteration assemblages (Hunt, 1977; Hunt and Ashley, 1979).
This region provides spectral information about most of
diagnostic altered minerals such as biotite, sericite, illite,
kaolinite, alunite, pyrophyllite, chlorite, calcite, epidote,
and jarosite, (Hunt, 1977; Hunt and Ashley, 1979; Yang
and Huntington, 1996; Clark, 1999; Rowan et al., 2004).
Since these minerals are indicators of dierent alteration
zones, their identication can provide direct evidence of
mineralization. Multispectral sensors such as ASTER typically contain sucient spectral information for the successful discrimination of general alteration zones
including, phyllic, argillic and propylitic (Zhang et al.,
2007; Gabr et al., 2010; Mars and Rowan, 2010; Bedini,
2011; Hosseinjani Zadeh and Tangestani, 2011; Ranjbar
et al., 2011; Amer et al., 2012). However, the spectral characteristics of individual minerals such as biotite, goethite
and hematite are not always distinct enough to allow for
their condent determination using broadband multispectral datasets such as ASTER or Landsat ETM+. On the
other hand, hyperspectral sensors have served to signicantly improve the achievable detail of detected minerals.
These sensors enable the identication and mapping of
detailed surface mineralogy due to higher spectral
resolution.
Researchers have been involved in eorts to evaluate,
validate, and demonstrate Hyperion applications for geologic mapping in a variety of sites around the world, especially in the United States, Australia, and South America
(Cudahy et al., 2001; Crowley et al., 2003; Hubbard
et al., 2003; Kruse et al., 2003; Hubbard and Crowley,
2005; Gersman et al., 2008; San and Suzen, 2010; Beiranvand Pour and Hashim, 2011; Bishop et al., 2011). Most of
these studies have used Hyperion data for mapping hydrothermal altered rocks associated with volcanic systems and
acid sulfate hydrothermal systems. Although porphyry
deposits are the most important copper resources in the
world, less attention is paid to discriminating alteration
zones and gossans around these types of deposits. Ideal
porphyry copper deposits are usually characterized by
hydrothermal alteration zones (Lowell and Guilbert,
1970), with the core of potassic-biotitic, surrounded by
phyllic, argillic, and propylitic zones. Dierentiation
between these zones, especially phyllic and potassic -as
indicators of high economic potential- is important in porphyry copper exploration. In general, rare publications are
available for mapping alteration minerals using Hyperion
on the PCDs (Beiranvand Pour and Hashim, 2011; Bishop
et al., 2011); hence, more investigations are needed to
determine the feasibilities of this instrument for mapping
such minerals. Despite the high spectral resolution of
Hyperion, not all the alteration minerals are still mapped
by remote sensing geologists, and none of the cited studies
deal with discrimination of potassic-biotitic zone, which is

441

a good indicator of high-economic potential for copper

mineralization.
This study focuses on investigating the ability of Hyperion data for mapping alteration minerals in southeastern
copper belt of Iran; an area with low vegetation and adequate rock exposures. A partial sub-pixel mapping of alteration minerals was implemented using the mixture tuned
matched ltering (MTMF) method, coupled with a comprehensive eld survey and laboratory analyses. This is
the rst evaluation of hyperspectral imagery for detection
and mapping potassic-biotitic zone in porphyry copper
deposits.
2. Geology and mineralization
The study area is situated at the southern part of the
central Iranian Uromiyeh-Dokhtar magmatic arc, southeastern Kerman province, Iran (Fig. 1(a)). This magmatic
belt has considerable economic potential for porphyry copper mineralization. The largest porphyry copper mine of
Iran, Sarcheshmeh, and two other porphyry deposits, Darrehzar, and Sereidun, are located at this area (Fig. 1(b)).
Sarcheshmeh which is hosted by a diorite to granodiorite stock (Waterman and Hamilton, 1975) locates
160 km southwestern Kerman. This deposit contains 1200
Mt of ore with 0.69% Cu and 0.03% Mo (Shahabpour,
2000). The oldest host rocks belong to an Eocene volcanogenic complex known as the Sarcheshmeh complex. The
complex consists of pyroxene trachybasalt, pyroxene
trachyandesite, less abundant andesite and rare occurrences of agglomerate, tu, and tuaceous sandstone.
The Eocene volcanogenic complex was intruded by a complex series of OligoMiocene granitoid intrusive phases
such as quartz diorite, quartz monzonite and granodiorite
(Atapour and Aftabi, 2007). Hydrothermal alteration and
mineralization at Sarcheshmeh are centered on the stock,
which were broadly synchronous with its emplacement.
The concentric alteration zones from the center to outward
are potassic, biotitic, phyllic, argillic, and propylitic
(Waterman and Hamilton, 1975) (Fig. 2(a)). This pattern
is the same as typical alteration enveloping other porphyry
Cu deposits (Lowell and Guilbert, 1970). Early hydrothermal alteration was predominantly potassic and propylitic,
followed by phyllic, silicic and argillic alterations (Hezarkhani, 2006). All these zones are arranged with respect
to their spatial distribution from the center of the deposit
to the periphery including potassic, potassic aected by
phyllic, strongly phyllic, and propylitic alterations (Shaei
and Shahabpour, 2012).
The Sereidun prospect mainly consists of an Eocene volcanic complex which is composed of andesite-basalt lava
(80%), trachy-andesite lava (10%) and sediments (10%)
(Shahabpour, 1982). The Miocene bodies which composed
of granodiorite to diorite rocks intruded into the Eocene
volcanic complex. They extensively developed through
the south and east and overlain by the porphyritic dacitic

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M. Hosseinjani Zadeh et al. / Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451

Fig. 1. (a) Geographical location of the study area in Iran; (b) Geological map of the study area and locations of copper deposits (modied from
Geological Survey of Iran, 1973b,c).

Fig. 2. (a) Alteration pattern in Sarcheshmeh deposit (modied from Waterman and Hamilton, 1975); (b) hydrothermal alteration map of the Sereidun
copper prospect (modied from Barzegar, 2007).

lava. Geothermal deposits of travertine are formed to

the north and northwest of the Sereidun district. The alteration types at Sereidun prospect are manifested by early
chloriteepidote (propylitic), transitional quartzsericite
(phyllic), quartzclay (argillic), late quartzalunite
pyrophyllite (advanced argillic), and quartz pyrophyllite
(silicic) (Fig. 2(b)). The phyllic alteration zone is extensively

developed throughout the prospecting rocks with disseminated advanced argillic and argillic alterations bounded
by propylitized altered rocks exposed at east, south and
west of the area (Barzegar, 2007).
The Darrehzar porphyry copper deposit is situated 8 km
southeastern Sarcheshmeh. The ore reserve in Darrehzar
has been estimated to be about 67 Mt at an average copper

M. Hosseinjani Zadeh et al. / Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451

grade of 0.37% (NICICO, 2008). Mineralization in this

area is associated with diorite and granodiorite, and their
enclosing Eocene volcano-sedimentary rocks. Both intrusions and their host rocks are extensively altered by hydrothermal uids into potassic, phyllic, propylitic and argillic
assemblages. The altered rocks are relatively oval shaped
elongated eastwest with about 2.2 km long and 0.71 km
wide. Hydrothermally altered rocks are highly fractured,
and supergene alteration has produced large amounts of
limonite, extensive oxidation, and leaching of suldes, giving a characteristic reddish or yellowish color to the altered
rocks. Phyllic and argillic alterations are developed over
most of the area, surrounded by propylitic alteration. Phyllic alteration persists below the oxidation zone and potassic
alteration is not seen at surface, possibly as a result of an
intense phyllic overprint or surface related weathering
(Geological survey of Iran, 1973a).
3. Methods
The Hyperion Level 1R dataset acquired on 26 July
2004 was used in this research for mapping alteration minerals. Since the data were acquired in summer the signal to
noise ratio was higher than winter datasets (King et al.,
2003). Pre-processing was implemented on the data in
order to remove noise and acquire surface reectance.
The spectra of diagnostic alteration minerals were
extracted from pre-processing imagery using ENVIs ndimensional visualizer and a priori knowledge of the geology. In order to acquire information about spectral characteristics of alteration minerals, a number of representative
samples were collected and spectrally measured using
ASD (Analytical Spectral Devices) FieldSpec Pro spectrometer at the Mineralogy Laboratory of the Universidad
del Pas Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/
EHU). The extracted spectra were used for mineral mapping through the MTMF algorithm. Field samples were
studied to determine their mineralogical characteristics
using transmitted and reected light microscopy and as
bulk sample by X-ray diraction (XRD) on a PANalytical
XPert Pro diractometer at the SGIker facilities (UPV/
EHU). Spatial distribution of the minerals identied by
Hyperion data was then veried by in situ inspection and
eld observation as well as examining their correspondence
to geological and alteration maps of the study area.
3.1. Preprocessing data
The Hyperion data suers from noise and had to be corrected for abnormal pixels, striping, and smile, prior to
application. A full dataset has 256 columns per 6460 lines
with 7.5 km instruments swath. The data have 12-bit
quantization and are stored as 16-bit signed integers.
Although this sensor was designed with 242 bands, level
1R data is delivered with 44 bands set to zero. There is also
spectral overlap between VNIR and SWIR sensors making
two bands redundant. Therefore, 196 out of 242 bands

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would be used as input for image processing and identication of target materials. These bands cover a spectral
region from 426.82925.41 nm (bands 857) in VNIR to
932.642395.5 nm (bands 79224) in SWIR. At the beginning of the preprocessing, uncalibrated image bands and
overlay bands were eliminated. Striping was apparent,
especially in the rst 12 VNIR and many SWIR bands. A
de-stripe algorithm that reduced the stripe and maintained
the integrity of spectral information was implemented
using ENVI software (Research Systems Inc, 2003; Ede,
2004; Darmawan, 2006). The destriping algorithm used in
ENVI calculates the mean for each line and then normalizes the line to this mean (Ede, 2004). The Fast Line-ofsight Atmospheric Analysis of Spectral Hypercubes (FLAASH) algorithm, available in ENVI software, was implemented to obtain surface reectance data. This algorithm
which was developed by Spectral Sciences, Inc, under the
sponsorship of the US Air Force Research Laboratory, is
a MODTRAN4-based atmospheric correction software
package (Adler Golden et al., 1999). It was designed to
eliminate atmospheric eects through derivation of atmospheric properties such as surface albedo, surface altitude,
water vapor column, aerosol, and cloud optical depths, as
well as surface and atmospheric temperatures from hyperspectral data.
While de-striping removes noise partly and gives impressive results, some excessive noises including the abnormal
pixels with negative digital numbers (DN) and pixels with
constant and intermediate DN values in an entire column
still remain at a number of bands. Fortunately, these noises
can be identied visually and statistically. The remaining
abnormal pixels and stripes were identied visually one
by one and some of the noise bands such as bands 190
and 203 which had constant abnormal pixels at columns
112 and 114, respectively, were eliminated. A number of
abnormal pixels such as those in column 7 at bands 200
and 201 were also eliminated after extracting spatial subsets on the datasets. In addition, to get rid of errors resulting from water vapor, the relevant absorption bands
(bands 121130 and 165180, covering 1356.41447.2 and
1800.291951.57 nm, respectively) were eliminated. A spatial subset corresponding to the study area was derived
from columns 10256 and lines 19922718 (246  726 pixels). By excluding bands having no information, having
abnormal pixels, and falling in the water absorption range,
a set of 165 bands were left for further analysis (Table 1).
Hyperion data also suer from smile which mainly
aects the bands in the VNIR region. The smile, also
known as frown curve, is a spectral distortion that is typically found in push-broom sensors. It refers to an acrosstrack wavelength shift from center wavelength, which is
due to the change of dispersion angle with eld position
(Goodenough et al., 2003; Jiang et al., 2007; Dadon
et al., 2010). The eect of smile is not obvious in individual
bands. However, it becomes observable when the image is
transformed into Minimum Noise Fraction (MNF) space
(Green et al., 1988). For Hyperion images with signicant

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M. Hosseinjani Zadeh et al. / Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451

Table 1
List of the selected 165 bands used for this study.
Array

Bands

Wavelength (nm)

VNIR
SWIR

857
7993
9598
100115
117120
131164
181189
191202
204224

426925
9321073
10941124
11441295
13161346
14571790
19612042
20622173
21932395

smile, there is a brightness gradient appearing in the rst

eigenvalue image. There is no brightness gradient in
MNF for images without signicant smile. The smile eect
may vary from one image to another. MNF algorithm
implemented on the data showed no brightness gradient
in MNF eigenvalue image (Fig. 3).
To minimizing uncorrelated spatial noises MNF was used
to segregate these noises (Green et al., 1988). The rst few
MNF bands usually convey the most useful information,

while subsequent bands increasingly have higher noise.

MNF bands with calculated eigenvalues below one usually
do not carry useful information and mainly contain noise
(Jenson, 2005). In order to remove the noise and to get satisfying results, MNF bands with eigenvalues more than 1.9
were selected and the inverse MNF was carried out. As a
result, only a subset of 20 MNF-bands were maintained
and retransformed to reectance data. The resulting reectance dataset contained 165 bands, but only with the spectral
information of the chosen MNF bands.
Finally, the ecacy of atmospheric correction and noise
removal was assessed by comparison of green vegetation
spectra extracted from the image with the same spectra
obtained from a spectral library (Fig. 4). The overall shape,
including the characteristic NIR plateau between 700 and
1300 nm, as well as absorption bands related to chlorophyll
(498 and 680 nm) and leaf water (980, 1190 nm) were
clearly evident in the reduced Hyperion data.

3.2. Endmember extraction

Information extraction from a Hyperion data set
involves several processes including extraction of scene
spectral endmembers using an integration of MNF, pixel
purity index (PPI), and n-dimensional visualizer
approaches (Boardman, 1993; Boardman et al., 1995;
ENVI user guide 2003).
A pixel purity index was applied to the 20 MNF images
with 10,000 projection of the scatter plot and a threshold
factor of 2.5. Density slice thresholds were performed on
results to determine pixels with high digital numbers. High
values were used to compute the region of interest (ROI)
for n-dimensional visualization. N-Dimensional visualization was applied to the ROI on MNF images to extract
pure pixels and to determine their spectra. These spectra
can be derived from FLAASH-calibrated images based
on the spatial locations or can be taken from MNF images
by inverting MNF plots to spectra. The extracted spectra
were used as reference for subsequent processing. These
spectra determine a number of endmembers, some of which

Fig. 3. First eigenvalue image of MNF transformation.

Fig. 4. Spectrum of green vegetation extracted from pre-processed

Hyperion imagery, and the USGS spectral library.

M. Hosseinjani Zadeh et al. / Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451

could be attributed to alteration zones. The extracted spectra were characterized using spectral analysis procedure
available at ENVI and visual inspection as well. These
spectra were also compared to the laboratory spectra of
eld samples and existing reference library spectra such
as those at the USGS (Fig. 5).
3.3. Mineral mapping by MTMF
The extracted spectra were used to identify alteration
minerals and to generate thematic mineral maps using
sub-pixel mixture tuned matched ltering (MTMF)
method. Geometric correction was performed after implementation of MTMF to keep original DN values of the
imagery. MTMF is a partial sub-pixel method that combines the strength of the matched lter (MF) method with
physical constraints imposed by mixing theory in which the
signature at any given pixel is a linear combination of the

445

individual components contained in that pixel. It oers a

rapid means for detecting specic minerals based on
matches to specic library or image endmember spectra.
Matched ltering removes the requirement of knowing all
of the end-members by maximizing the response of a
known end-member and suppressing the response of the
composite unknown background, thus matching the
known signature (Chen and Reed, 1987; Stocker et al.,
1990; Research Systems Inc, 2003). The importance of mixture tuned matched ltering in identication of alteration
minerals has already been revealed in many studies (Boardman et al., 1995; Kruse et al., 2003; Ellis and Scott, 2004;
Bishop et al., 2011; Hosseinjani Zadeh, 2008; Hosseinjani
Zadeh and Tangestani, 2011; Hosseinjani Zadeh et al.,
2013). Results of this algorithm are two sets of gray images
for each endmember including the matched lter (MF)
image score and the infeasibility image. The MF images
help to estimate relative degree of match to the reference

Fig. 5. Mineral spectra extracted from Hyperion comparing to convolved spectra from eld samples and reference library spectra. (a) Biotite (Bio), (b)
Muscovite (Mu), (c) Illite (Il), (d) Kaolinite (Kao), (e) Goethite (Goe), (f) Hem (Hem), (g) Jarosite (Ja), (h) pyrophylite (Pyr), (i) Chlorite (Ch). Hyp and
Lib are abbreviations of Hyperion and Library, respectively. The red vertical lines indicate locations of diagnostic absorption features.

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M. Hosseinjani Zadeh et al. / Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451

spectrum and the approximate sub-pixel abundance with

values from zero to one. The infeasibility results are in
noise sigma units and indicate the feasibility of the MF
results. This image is used to reduce the number of false
positives that are sometimes found when using MF. Pixels
with a high infeasibility are likely to be MF false positives.
Pixels which were mapped correctly had MF scores above
the background distribution around zero and a low infeasibility value. In order to get satisfactory results and select
pixels that matched well with the reference endmember, the
MF score band and the infeasibility band were used to create a 2-dimensional scatter plot. To understanding mineral
fractions at each pixel, pixels of low infeasibility and MF
score higher than approximately 0.25 were highlighted
and divided into four groups including 0.250.35, 0.35
0.50, 0.500.75, and 0.751. These values indicate percentages of each mineral at the pixel. For instance, value of
0.25 shows that 25% of pixel contains the selected mineral.
Regions of interest (ROI) matched to these pixels were
dened; each ROI was assigned a unique color and was
draped over Hyperion grey imagery (Fig. 69).
4. Results and discussion
Endmember extraction yielded average spectral signatures for most of the alteration minerals including biotite,
muscovite, illite, kaolinite, goethite, hematite, jarosite,
pyrophyllite, and chlorite (Fig. 5). The spectrum with diagnostic absorption features at 2254 and 2324 nm which coincided Hyperion bands 210 and 217, respectively, was

indicator of biotite (potassic-biotitic alteration zone)

(Fig. 5(a)). This spectrum displayed an absorption feature
at 2203 nm and small changes in the intensity of reectance
at VNIR, which were not shown in library spectrum of biotite. The 2203 nm absorption is due to AlOH vibration in
minerals such as muscovite and illite (Fig. 5(b) and (c)).
However, muscovite spectrum shows a deeper absorption
than illite. Absorptions in 2163 nm (band 201) and
2203 nm (band 205), due to Al-OH vibration, were indicators of kaolinite (Fig. 5(d)). The spectrum which was
assigned to goethite showed strong absorption at 487 nm,
and a broad absorption feature at 932 nm, matching the
bands 14 and 79, respectively (Fig. 5(e)). The spectrum with
absorptions at 487 nm and 884 nm (band 53) could be
assigned to hematite (Fig. 5(f)). The spectrum which
showed absorptions at 932 nm and 2264 nm (bands 79
and 211, respectively) was jarosite (Fig. 5(g)). Commonly,
absorption features of these minerals at VNIR region are
due to electronic transitions of ferric iron and the SWIR
absorption features of jarosite results from FeOH and OH
stretches and bending. Hyperion spectra of goethite, hematite
and jarosite also showed absorption at 2203 nm due to mixture with AlOH bearing minerals. The spectra with diagnostic absorption features at 2163 nm (band 201) and 2335 nm
(band 218), due to AlOH and MgOH, were indicators of
pyrophyllite and chlorite, respectively (Figs. 5(h) and (i)).
Results of MTMF obtained a fraction map for each
mineral. Discriminated areas successfully correspond the
alteration zones around Sarcheshmeh, Darrehzar, and
Sereidun (Fig. 69). Most pixels showed a mixture of

Fig. 6. Mineral fraction map of biotite derived from MTMF algorithm. The large image indicates discriminated minerals at whole area and the zoomed
images indicate Sarcheshmeh, Sereidun and Darrehzar PCDs.

M. Hosseinjani Zadeh et al. / Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451

447

Fig. 7. Mineral fraction map of biotite at Sarcheshmeh overlaid by its alteration map; black and green lines show extensions of the potassic and biotitic
zones derived from the alteration map of Sarcheshmeh.

alteration minerals so that more than one mineral was discriminated in a unique pixel. This was conrmed by eld
studies as a mixture of various minerals observed in a
unique alteration zone. For example, small amounts of
kaolinite or chlorite could be expected in phyllic zone.
Exposures of biotite were restricted to Sarcheshmeh with
various fractions (0.251.00), and in 4 pixels with low fractions (0.250.35 in two pixels; 0.350.50, and 0.500.75,
each in one pixel), at northern Darrehzar (Figs. 6).
According to Sarcheshmeh alteration map (Fig. 2(a)) and
eld studies, discriminated areas correspond the locations of
biotitic and potassic alterations. Locations of potassic and
biotitic alterations were derived from Sarcheshmeh map
(Fig. 2(a)), and were overlaid the discriminated biotite pixels
(Fig. 7). Results showed that higher fractions (0.501.00)
were discriminated within potassic alteration while lower
fractions (0.500.25) were matched to the biotitic alteration.
Furthermore, pixels which were discriminated out of the
map border coincided the mine tailings.
Sericite, illite, and kaolinite were discriminated at Sarcheshmeh, Darrehzar, and Sereidun (Figs. 8(ac)). Sericite
is dominant at these areas while kaolinite and illite are
disseminated.
Goethite, hematite, and jarosite were also discriminated
at all three altered districts (Figs. 8(df)). However, the number of pixels which were discriminated as goethite and hematite were more abundant than jarosite. Goethite and
hematite were mostly mapped at east and south of the
Sarcheshmeh which coincide the mine tailings. Jarosite was
discriminated in a few pixels at the northeast and southwest
of Sarcheshmeh. Low fractions of oxide minerals at

Sarcheshmeh could be attributed to the exploration activities

which have caused transferring the oxidized overburdens
from this district. Goethite was distinguished extensively at
Darrehzar with fractions 0.251.00, while hematite and jarosite were less distributed. Jarosite was discriminated at the
center and southwest, and hematite was identied at the
northeast of the area. Results obtained from Darrehzar
showed that most parts of this district consist of sericite, goethite, subordinate hematite, and jarosite, with disseminated
kaolinite and pyrophyllite. Pervasive distribution of iron
oxides such as goethite and hematite at this area conrms
the extensive oxidation at Darrehzar produced as a result
of supergene alteration. Goethite was discriminated at the
center and west of Sereidun with fractions 0.250.50, while
jarosite was only discriminated at eight pixels with fractions
0.250.35. Barzegar (2007) suggested that leached zone (as a
product result of the supergene alteration) increases from
western to the central part of the prospect and decreases
toward the east, and limonite with various colors is associated with abundant goethite throughout the Sereidun prospect. Discriminated areas conrmed this statement so that
goethite is the dominant iron oxide at Sereidun and it was
discriminated at the center and west of the area. Discrimination of pyrophyllite is limited to Sereidun and more scarcely
at Darrehzar and Sarcheshmeh (Fig. 8(g)). Laboratory spectroscopy and XRD of eld samples conrmed the existence
of pyrophyllite at Sereidun. Chlorite, as indicator of propylitic alteration was discriminated in fractions 0.251.00,
chiey between Sarcheshmeh and Darrehzar, and around
three altered districts which surrounding other alteration
minerals (Fig. 8(h)).

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M. Hosseinjani Zadeh et al. / Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451

Fig. 8. fraction map of alteration minerals derived from MTMF algorithm. (a) Muscovite, (b) Illite, (c) Kaolinite, (d) Goethite, (f) Hematite, (g)
Pyrophyllite, (h) Chlorite.

5. Accuracy assessment
Accuracy of discriminated minerals was assessed by
mineralogical analysis of collected samples, checking the
veracity of identied minerals by comparison to corresponding eld samples and large-scale alteration maps of
Sarcheshmeh and Darrehzar. The visual inspection of discriminated alteration minerals show good correlation with
the alteration maps (Figs. 2 and 9).
Field observation and sampling was carried out between
24 and 27 November, 2011, at Sarcheshmeh, Sereidun and
Darrehzar areas. Sixty-ve samples were systematically collected from fresh and weathered representative altered
rocks, and were localized by a global position system
(GPS). Spectral characteristics and mineralogical properties of samples were then analyzed by ASD instrument,
optical microscopy, and XRD. The measured spectra by

ASD were interpreted and the abundance of each mineral

in a spectrum was determined based on wavelength, intensity, and shape of the main absorption features. Relative
abundances of mineral phases in XRD results were made
by comparing the intensities of the main peaks and the proportions of them were estimated semi-quantitatively.
Checking the virtual Hyperion mineralogy of each pixel
against the minerals obtained from ASD, XRD, and
petrography yielded an acceptable agreement. Comparison
of Hyperion spectra to the corresponding measured spectra
of samples and reference library spectra such as USGS conrmed that in most cases these spectra matched reasonably
(Fig. 5). However, slight dierences were observed mostly
due to mixture and co-occurrence of alteration minerals.
Biotite, chlorite, goethite, jarosite and hematite show mixtures with sericite so that diagnostic absorption feature of
sericite (in 2203 nm) was also observed in their spectra.

M. Hosseinjani Zadeh et al. / Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451

449

Fig. 9. (a) Final classication image map of alteration minerals derived from MTMF algorithm. (b) Sarcheshmeh mine; (c) Sereidun, and (d) Darrehzar.)
Bio, Mu, Il, Kao, Goe, Hem, Ja, Pyr, and Ch indicate Biotite, Muscovite, Illite, Kaolinite, Goethite, Hematite, Jarosite, pyrophyllite, and Chlorite,
respectively.

In addition, Hyperion spectra exhibited subtle features not

evident in the laboratory spectra. Some dierences could be
an eect of pixel size, causing greater mixing in Hyperion
data compared to the library spectra. This is due to the fact
that eld and library spectra were acquired from smaller
areas and purer samples, while the Hyperion spectra are
indicators of an area of 30  30 m with commonly
unavoidable mixtures. Small amounts of a collected sample, therefore, do not exactly represent the spectral properties of the associated Hyperion pixel. However, the imageextracted spectra with obvious spectral signature could be
indicative of dierent types of alteration minerals. For
instance, the illite spectrum collected from eld samples
(black curve in Fig. 5(c)) and Hyperion imagery (red curve
in Fig. 5(c)) show similar deep absorption band at 2203 nm

Table 2
Counting percentages in which discriminated minerals by Hyperion data
were similar to the spectroscopic and laboratory results for each mineral.
Mineral

ASD (%)

XRD%

Biotite
Muscovite
Illite
Kaolinite
Goethite
Hematite
Jarosite
Pyrophyllite
Chlorite

(52/70)
(47/70)
(48/70)
(54/70)
(62/70)
(53/70)
(57/70)
(59/70)
(56/70)

(52/70)
(33/70)
(46/70)
(53/70)
(61/70)
(53/70)
(57/70)
(60/70)
(48/70)

74
67
68
77
88
76
81
84
80

74
47
66
76
87
76
81
86
69

as well as shoulder absorptions at 2143 nm and 2274 nm,

which are also observed for ideal illite in a spectral library.

450

M. Hosseinjani Zadeh et al. / Advances in Space Research 53 (2014) 440451

Results of XRD and thin sections microscopic analyses

also conrmed the occurrence of discriminated minerals
at the study areas, and showed that most samples consisted
secondary minerals formed by hydrothermal alteration and
weathering processes.
In order to check the veracity of minerals identied by
Hyperion, results were compared to the ground samples
via the ASD and XRD analyses. If the result of Hyperion
data was similar to ASD and XRD outputs, value of 1 was
adopted; otherwise, 0 was assigned to the sample location.
Frequency was then applied to generalize the results and to
determine the number of measurements in which the result
of Hyperion data was similar to the led data. Percentages
of the correctly classied minerals were shown in Table 2.
This assessment revealed that in most cases correctly classied minerals were more than 75%. However, the exception was for muscovite and illite which showed lower
percentages, especially the lowest percentage obtained for
XRD (47%) (Table 2). This could be attributed to the fact
that in most cases it is dicult to discriminate illite and
muscovite from each other due to similarity of composition
and spectral characteristics. In addition, in XRD bulk
analysis muscovite may be confused with illite. Sample
preparation for XRD bulk analysis distorts preferential
orientation of phyllosilicates (especially illite and muscovite). For an adequate evaluation of samples with abundant muscovite and illite more sophisticated treatment
such as oriented XRD analysis which requires more time
and cost would be applied. Since spectroscopic studies
could distinguish illite and muscovite more precisely than
XRD, the results was improved to 67%.
6. Conclusion
This study examined the feasibility of hyperspectral
imagery for detection and mapping of alteration zones
around porphyry copper deposits. It showed that the
spaceborne Hyperion data can detect alteration zones
while the data were subjected to pre-processing and noise
reduction. This sensor was eective for mapping a variety
of minerals characteristic of hydrothermally altered rocks
including muscovite, illite, kaolinite, chlorite, pyrophyllite,
biotite, hematite, jarosite, and goethite. Potassic-biotitic,
phyllic, argillic, and propylitic alteration zones as well as
gossans were distinguished and were discriminated from
surrounding rocks. The ability to discriminate biotite,
hematite, goethite and jarosite makes this instrument useful
for mineral exploration, discrimination of strong pyritization, gossans, and mine tailings. In addition, such enhancements could be useful for identifying areas prone to
environmental impacts by acid mine drainages, in which
minerals like jarosite, goethite, and hematite form under
various acidic conditions. It is concluded that Hyperion
data provide signicant advantage over broad-band image
data such as TM, ETM+ or ASTER in facilitating detailed
and comprehensive study of alteration minerals with modest need to eld and laboratory measurements.

Acknowledgment
This work was funded by Research and Development
Center of National Iranian Copper Industries Company
(NICICO). The authors are sincerely grateful to the geologists and sta of the Sarcheshmeh copper mine for providing the facilities and kindly helping us during our eld
work.
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