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Porphyry Detection Example Página 1 de 10
Porphyry Detection Example

The porphyry detection process involves sequentially applying: the circular
feature transform (CFT), performing central peak detection; and then visualising
the feature boundaries using the amplitude contrast transform and the boundary
tracing plugins
The following gives an example of how to use the provided plugins to detect
porphyry features.
In this example, the reduced-to-pole (RTP) magnetic data shown in Figure 1 is

used as input.
Figure 1: The RTP magnetic data used as input in this example. This data is the
property of Barrick Gold.
Generate the Circular Feature Transform Output
Firstly, run the Circular Feature Transform plugin for the input magnetic grid. The
plugin provides options to:
l specify a range of radii, corresponding to the sizes of the interested
porphyry features,
l choose the calculation method to use the average or maximum
accumulation of the transform for each radius, and
l specify the circularity constraint, which determines how circular a feature
needs to be to register a response.
mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\Geosoft\resourcefiles\hlp\CET_Por... 16/06/2019
For this particular example, a set of appropriate values is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Input parameter values for the CFT plugin for the example input data.
Note that the transform output will be saved to egCFTransform.grd and will also
be displayed once the transform calculations are complete. The CFT output is
shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: The resulting CFT output.
Applying Central Peak Detection
Once the CFT output has been generated, this output can now be passed to the
Central Peak Detection plugin. This detection stage will only select circularity
responses above (since we are searching for elevated features) a user given
threshold value. These resulting points are the detected centres of porphyry
features, and are stored in the egPorphyryFeatures database.
The central peak detection plugin provides options to:

l specify a range of thresholds or a single threshold,
l specify the exclusion radius, which determines the closest allowable distance
between porphyry centres,
l detect elevated or depressed porphyry features, and
l specify whether to open output databases and/or save output polygon files.
An example set of parameter values is shown in Figure 4, namely thresholds of 5,

10, and 15. With these thresholds, the plugin will produce and open (since Open
Output GDB(s) is selected) 3 porphyry centre databases in Montaj:
l egPorphyryFeatures_t5.gbd
Since the Create Circle PLY(s) output is also selected, the plugin will also produce
3 polygon files:
l egPorphyryFeatures_t5.ply
Each polygon file contains circles that correspond with the porphyry centres
database. The final input parameter values used are shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: The central peak detection values used in this example.
The database showing some of the porphyry centres detected for a threshold of
10 is illustrated in Figure 5.
Figure 5: The database of porphyry centres detected for a threshold of 10.
Generating the Amplitude Contrast Transform Output
The Amplitude Contrast Transform(ACT) is useful in the process of visualizing the

boundaries of a porphyry feature. Run the ACT plugin with the parameters shown
in Figure 6. Note that the radii range is chosen to reflect the porphyry feature
sizes shown in the porphyry centre database. In this case, for a threshold of 10
(see Figure 5), the range of radii from the output database is from 3 cells to 15
cells. The resulting transform output is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 6: Input parameter values for the ACT plugin for a threshold of 10.
Figure 7: The resulting ACT output.
Tracing Porphyry Boundaries
Using the initial circular boundaries generated by the Central Peak Detection
plugin, the Boundary Tracing plugin can find feature boundaries using an active
contour (snake) algorithm. This plugin takes an energy input grid (typically from
the ACT plugin) and a database from the Central Peak Detection plugin. The
energy input is used by the snakes (boundaries) to indicate the locations where
the contours should be attracted to, in this case, the high magnetic contrast
regions that represent circular feature boundaries. Each porphyry boundary is
seeded with an initial circle specified in the output database from the peak
detection plugin.
The advanced section of the plugin contains control weights for the porphyry
boundaries that determine the characteristics of the final boundaries. A heavy
bias toward a particular control weight produces different results:
l Continuity - control points along the boundaries maintained equal distance
l Curvature - sharp curvature changes are minimized
l Energy Input - the boundary closely matches the high valued regions of the
energy input
In general, smoothly rounded boundaries are preferred to represent porphyry

features, and so in this example, a bias is placed on the curvature. Note that the
weights require a value between 0 and 1. Also note the porphyry boundary output
is stored as a PLY file (as egPorphyryBounds_t10.ply in this case).
Figure 8: Input parameters for the Boundary Tracing plugin for a threshold of 10.
Visualizing the Detected Porphyry Features
Several ways of visualizing the porphyry features are suggested below.
Plotting Porphyry Centres and Circles
The thresholded results from the Central Peak Detection plugin can be rendered
onto the input data for a visual interpretation. The porphyry centres are plotted
via Map Tools » Symbols » Location Plot... using the porphyry centre database as
input. The circular boundaries (an output from the peak detection plugin) of the
features are rendered via Map Tools » Draw from PLY file... using the
corresponding polygon file. Figure 9 shows the porphyry centres detected (as X)
for a central peak detection threshold of 10, and the corresponding polygon file
(egPorphyryFeatures_t10.ply) is rendered to show the circular boundaries
corresponding with the strongest response radius.
Figure 9: The circular boundary porphyry detection results for a central peak
detection threshold of 10, rendered onto the input magnetic data.
Plotting Porphyry Centres and Traced Boundaries
Likewise to the circular boundaries, the traced porphyry boundaries can be

rendered onto the input data in the same way, i.e. Map Tools » Draw from PLY
file... and selecting egPorphyryBounds_t10.ply.
Figure 10: The porphyry boundaries for a central peak detection threshold of 10,
rendered onto the input magnetic data.
Visualizing the ACT Output with the Input Data
In addition to plotting the porphyry centres and rendering their respective

boundaries, the ACT output can also be overlaid onto the input data. This is done
through the menu, i.e. Grid and Image » Display » Single Grid.... For this
example, the colour table-colour.tbl, and colour method-histogram equalization
were chosen. The input data was also chosen to be the current map to overlay
the transform. The final result is shown in Figure 11. Note that the porphyry
centres were also plotted, and the transparency is set to 75% on the ACT layer.
Figure 11: Overlaying the ACT output onto the input data, and plotting the
porphyry centres.

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Porphyry Detection Example Página 1 de 10

Porphyry Detection Example

In this example, the reduced-to-pole (RTP) magnetic data shown in Figure 1 is

Generate the Circular Feature Transform Output

For this particular example, a set of appropriate values is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 3: The resulting CFT output.

Applying Central Peak Detection

The central peak detection plugin provides options to:

An example set of parameter values is shown in Figure 4, namely thresholds of 5,

Figure 4: The central peak detection values used in this example.

Figure 5: The database of porphyry centres detected for a threshold of 10.

Generating the Amplitude Contrast Transform Output

The Amplitude Contrast Transform(ACT) is useful in the process of visualizing the

Figure 7: The resulting ACT output.

Tracing Porphyry Boundaries

In general, smoothly rounded boundaries are preferred to represent porphyry

Visualizing the Detected Porphyry Features

Several ways of visualizing the porphyry features are suggested below.

Plotting Porphyry Centres and Circles

Plotting Porphyry Centres and Traced Boundaries

Likewise to the circular boundaries, the traced porphyry boundaries can be

Visualizing the ACT Output with the Input Data

In addition to plotting the porphyry centres and rendering their respective

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