FRACTAL PROPERTIES OF MULTI-ORDER FOLDING AS A TOOL FOR EXPLORATION OF LOW-GRADE BANDED IRON-ORES IN THE KRIVOY ROG BASIN (UKRAINE)

The low-grade Palaeoproterozoic strata-bound banded iron ores of the K rivoy Rog basin (Ukraine) underwent strong tectonometamorphic deformat ion into superimposed folds of several orders, with amplitudes from ce ntimetres to hundreds of metres. The across-strike sections of bed sur faces defining the low-grade ore bodies resemble self-similar fractal curves; hence, a fractal geometrical model was developed in order to q uantify the complexity and sinuosity of bed contours. Two different me thods of measurement (polygonal approximation and two-dimensional grid cell counting) were used for 5-8 different scales. Factual similarity dimension D and other model parameters have been estimated by means o f linear regression and compared for both measurement methods. From th e fractal model a sinuosity coefficient of contours of the folded bed surfaces K-s and a coefficient of degree of exploration of iran ore bo dies K-e were constructed. It is pointed out that parameters of the mo del can be used for determination of the optimal exploration length sc ales.