Accurate quantitative mineralogical data has significant implications in mining operations. However, quantitative analysis of minerals is challenging for most of the sensor outputs. Thus, it requires advances in data analytics. In this work, data fusion approaches for integrating datasets pertaining to the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) spectral regions are proposed, aiming to facilitate more accurate prediction of SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3 concentrations in a polymetallic sulphide deposit. Two approaches of low-level data fusion were applied to these datasets. In the first approach, the pre-processed blocks of MWIR and LWIR data were concatenated to form a fused data block. In the second approach, a prior variable selection was performed to extract the most important features from the MWIR and LWIR datasets. The extracted informative features were subsequently concatenated to form a new fused data block. Next, prediction models that link the mineralogical concentrations with the infrared reflectance spectra were developed using partial-least squares regression (PLSR), principal component regression (PCR) and support vector regression (SVR) analytical techniques. These models were applied to the fused data blocks as well as the individual (MWIR and LWIR) data blocks. The obtained results indicate that SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3 mineral concentrations can be successfully predicted using both MWIR and LWIR spectra individually, but the prediction performance greatly improved with data fusion; where the PLSR, PCR, and SVR models provided good and acceptable results. The proposed approach could be extended for online analysis of mineral concentrations in different deposit types. Thus, it would be highly beneficial in mining operations, where indications of mineralogical concentrations can have significant financial implications.

The increasing availability of complex multivariate data yielded by sensor technologies permits qualitative and quantitative data analysis for material characterization. Multivariate data are hard to understand by visual inspection and intuition. Thus, data-driven models are required to derive study-specific insights from large datasets. In the present study, a partial least squares regression (PLSR) model was used for the prediction of elemental concentrations using the mineralogical techniques mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) combined with data fusion approaches. In achieving the study objectives, the usability of the individual MWIR and LWIR datasets for the prediction of the concentration of elements in a polymetallic sulphide deposit was assessed, and the results were compared with the outputs of low- and mid-level data fusion methods. Prior to low-level data fusion implementation, data filtering techniques were applied to the MWIR and LWIR datasets. The pre-processed data were concatenated and a PLSR model was developed using the fused data. The mid-level data fusion was implemented by extracting features using principal component analysis (PCA) scores. As the models were applied to the MWIR, LWIR, and fused datasets, an improved prediction was achieved using the low-level data fusion approach. Overall, the acquired results indicate that the MWIR data can be used to reliably predict a combined Pb–Zn concentration, whereas LWIR data has a good correlation with the Fe concentration. The proposed approach could be extended for generating indicative element concentrations in polymetallic sulphide deposits in real-time using infrared reflectance data. Thus, it is beneficial in providing elemental concentration insights in mining operations.