Applicability of multispectral Sentinel data for mineral exploration by use of remote sensing and geospatial technologies:A case study in Northern Chile

Abstract

The objective of this MSc thesis is to prove that the Sentinel-2 satellite has the same capabilities for mineral exploration than another satellite considered the “reference technology” by the minerals industry. Since there have been an extensive use and applications of the Landsat-8 satellite for mineral exploration, this satellite is considered in this case the “reference technology”. To prove the capability of the Sentinel-2, a sequence of key applications applied on the Landsat-8 satellite for mineral exploration have been carried out using the Sentinel-2 on a specific mine site. Mine site for this investigation is the Escondida mine in northern Chile. Through several remote sensing applications such as band combinations, band ratios, PCA analyses, and pixel´s classification both satellites, Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 have been tested on Escondida and results have been obtained and discussed. As a conclusion of this analysis, the capability of Sentinel-2 for mineral exploration has been proved, potential improvements have been identified and limitations in its prospective use have been indicated.