The Geoscience Australia Geochronology Laboratory provides high quality age information to support research objectives in both internal and collaborative regional and specific interest projects. Collaborative projects are operated with the State and the Northern Territory Geological Surveys, universities and the CSIRO.
Geoscience Australia installed a new Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP) in late 2007 with commissioning and testing through the first quarter of 2008. This new facility will provide in-house analysis of mineral phases such as zircon and monazite and enable the group to have detailed management of the 'outcrop-to-publication' analytical cycle which will ensure that the highest quality data are provided to research projects. The in-house facility also will aid the development of new analytical methods, expanding Geoscience Australia's capability to address increasingly complex geoscience issues.
The Hon. Martin Ferguson AM MP, launched the SHRIMP at Geoscience Australia on 1 April 2008.
The Geoscience Australia Geochronology Laboratory also has a strong network of relationships with geochronology laboratories around the world which enables additional access to a range of analytical methods such as Ar-Ar, TIMS U-Pb, etc.
Many of Australia's world class mineral deposits formed between 2700 to 2500 million years ago (Archaean age) and 1700 to 1500 million years ago (Palaeoproterozoic to early Mesoproterozoic age). These include the Archaean gold deposits near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, and the Palaeo- to Mesoproterozoic Zn-Pb-Ag, Cu and Cu-Au deposits in the Mount Isa-Cloncurry region, and at Broken Hill and Olympic Dam. Because shelly fossils are absent in rocks older than approximately 500 million years, it is not possible to use palaeontology to determine the ages of rocks which host most of Australia's mineral wealth.
Datasets collected in the Geoscience Australia Geochronology Laboratory are used to constrain:
The Geoscience Australia Geochronology Laboratory aims to provide improved efficiencies in mineral exploration through a better understanding of the ages of the rocks which host Australia's mineral wealth and the fluid flow events which led to their formation.