Digital map of the distribution of minerals associated with Acid Mine Drainage in San Felipe de Jesús, Sonora, Mexico
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Abstract
Abandoned mine tailings can generate Acid Mine Drainage (AMD), which mobilizes metals into soils and water bodies and precipitates secondary minerals such as jarosite, goethite, gypsum, and anhydrite. In Mexico, remote sensing (RS) has been used to locate mines and tailings, but no published studies mapping AMD-indicator minerals are known. In San Felipe de Jesús, Sonora, the "El Lavadero" tailings of the La Ventana Mine are adjacent to agricultural lands and the Sonora River. This study presents a digital spectral-detection map of these four minerals over a 12 km² area (3 × 4 km), produced from a Level-2A Sentinel-2 image of 18 March 2026, classified with the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM, 0.1 rad threshold) and spectral signatures from the USGS and ASTER libraries. Jarosite and goethite detections are densest on the tailings, but about 88 % and 80 % of their area, respectively, lies more than 300 m away (agricultural plots, hillslopes); anhydrite appears almost entirely over the urban area and gypsum (0.07 ha) only next to the tailings. Only detections on the tailings can be checked against the published mineralogy of the site; the others may reflect construction materials, lithological iron oxides or agricultural gypsum, since no masks were applied and accuracy was not assessed with control points. The map is an indirect indicator of processes compatible with AMD; it neither estimates risk nor delimits contamination, and it serves as support for planning field sampling. The resulting product is an interactive map available for public consultation.
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