Monitoring of Rare Earth Potential Areas using Remote Sensing

Rare Earth element is collection of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table, especially the 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium. Rare earth element in Indonesia is obtained from monazite or associated minerals which is waste of tin ore sand mining. Monazite is composed of several elements of the rare earth, uranium, and thorium for nuclear reactors. Rare earth element can be processed into electronic components such as liquid crystal display (LCD), magnet, automotive components, and high-tech space shuttle. Rare earth element can be detected by remote sensing data. Remote sensing data in the form of optical data, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), microwave, and lidar. In this research is used remote sensing data based on satellite, namely ALOS PALSAR,Landsat, X SAR, and Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM). Rare earth element exploitation activities affect to regional development. This research study area is in Bangka island. The parameters used for rare earth detection are height model, density, gravity, hydrothermal alteration, land cover, and magnetic fields. The results is the potential of rare earth element mining area. The accuracy of rare earth potential area is more than 3σ (90%). Monitoring of Rare Earth Potential Areas using Remote Sensing will take effective in time and low cost.