Minerals Alert May 2013

A monthly online newsletter with product news, data releases and projects relating to the minerals and energy exploration industry.

  1. Geo-Region of the Month - Gawler Craton, South Australia
  2. Workshop on new seismic and MT datasets from the Yilgarn Craton to the Musgrave Province, Western Australia
  3. Update on geophysical data releases
  4. About Minerals Alert

1. Geo-Region of the Month - Gawler Craton, South Australia

Each month Geoscience Australia highlights a range of significant products relating to key Australian mineral provinces which have been released over the past 10 years and may be of interest to current explorers. This month's Geo-Region is the Gawler Craton, South Australia. The highlighted products, which are available as a free download, are:

  1. IOCG Prospectivity Map. Gawler Craton iron oxide Cu-Au (-U) potential map. This map ranks regions within the Gawler according to predicted prospectivity, on the basis of a number of key ingredients for iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) mineral systems.
  2. Uranium and Geothermal Energy Prospectivity - An assessment of the uranium and geothermal prospectivity of east central South Australia. This report uses a mineral-systems approach to develop prospectivity maps for a range of different uranium mineralisation styles and geothermal energy systems across the eastern Gawler Craton, Adelaide Rift System and western Curnamona Province.
  3. Deep Crustal Seismic Surveys. South Australian Seismic and MT Workshop 2010. Gawler Craton-Officer Basin-Musgrave Province-Amadeus Basin (GOMA) Seismic and MT Workshop 2010. The two reports from the workshop contain extended abstracts presenting results and interpretations from seismic and magnetotelluric (MT) surveys across (i) the western Curnamona Province, Adelaide Rift System, eastern Gawler Craton and (ii) along a northerly transect from the central Gawler Craton, over the northern margin of the craton under the Officer Basin, and across the Musgrave Province.
  4. New SHRIMP zircon geochronology. New SHRIMP U-Pb zircon geochronology from the Gawler Craton and Curnamona Province, South Australia, 2008-2010. This report documents results from SHRIMP zircon dating of 68 samples across the eastern Gawler Craton and western Curnamona Province. Samples were specifically collected to complement the interpretation of seismic transects as listed in download 3 above. Highlights include the first discovery of Mesoarchean rocks in South Australia - see also Fraser et al 2010, Precambrian Research, 179, 1-21.
  5. Depth to Magnetic Basement Map. Depth to magnetic basement map of the Gawler-Curnamona region, South Australia 1:750 000 scale. This map shows the depth to the base of Neoproterozoic cover sequences, constructed from depth to magnetic source estimates combined with basement drill-hole intersections and reflection seismic interpretations.

2. Workshop on new seismic and MT datasets from the Yilgarn Craton to the Musgrave Province, Western Australia

There will be a full day workshop on Wednesday, 19 June 2013 in Perth to present the results of new seismic reflection and magnetotelluric data collected for the 2011 Yilgarn-Officer-Musgrave seismic survey in Western Australia. This survey extends along the Great Central Road from the junction with the David Carnegie Road within the northeastern Yilgarn Craton, across the western Officer Basin to Warakurna in the Musgrave Province. The survey and workshop are a collaborative project involving Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of Western Australia.

For details on the workshop, please email narelle.neumann@ga.gov.au; or phone +61 2 6249 9429. The workshop program is available at the GSWA web site [pdf PDF 1.7MB].

To register, please email deenikka.preedy@dmp.wa.gov.au; or phone +61 8 9222 3634.

3. Update on geophysical data releases

Geoscience Australia is managing the geophysical data acquisition programs in Western Australia and South Australia.

The current status of Geoscience Australia's geophysical survey data acquisition is available in a comprehensive table.

Minerals Alert Geophysical Surveys Table - survey boundary polygons in MapInfo TAB format.

4. About Minerals Alert

For more information, please email clientservices@ga.gov.au; or phone 1800 800 173.