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

1. UNCOVER Summit: Adelaide Convention Centre 31 March-2 April 2014
2. Deep-of-Cover technical workshop: University of Adelaide 2-3 April 2014
3. Nd model age map of the Australian continent
4. Australian Operating Mines Map 2013
5. Update on geophysical data releases
6. About Minerals Alert

1. UNCOVER Summit: Adelaide Convention Centre 31 March-2 April 2014

The UNCOVER Implementation committee, under the aegis of the Australian Academy of Science, is hosting a summit to consider the challenge of mineral exploration beneath Australia's cover.

UNCOVER is a call to the exploration geoscience community in industry, government and academia to collaborate on a scale not previously attempted in Australia, beginning with this landmark summit. UNCOVER's goal is to achieve a step change in knowledge and methodologies in Earth sciences which is relevant to mineral exploration beneath the 80% of the Australian continent that is covered. This is not a conference - the UNCOVER summit is a facilitated cross-sector collaboration meeting, driven by industry's need to do things differently. Come prepared to work and participate in discussions about the future of exploration geoscience in Australia.

2. Deep-of-Cover technical workshop: University of Adelaide 2-3 April 2014

Geoscience Australia is hosting a technical workshop to develop practical solutions for determining the depth of cover at the tenement scale by identifying the optimal trade-off between accuracy and cost for the range of Australian regolith environments. The range of depth-of-cover methods currently being used will be discussed by key experts in their field, with much of the workshop given over to discussion on their limits and practicality. The technical workshop will appeal to explorers designing regional drilling programmes.

For information please see UNCOVER Summit 2014 or to register go to UNCOVER Summit 2014 registration.

3. Nd model age map of the Australian continent

Geoscience Australia has released the first isotopic maps of the Australian continent, perhaps the first for any continent. The maps are based on the samarium-neodymium (Sm-Nd) isotopic signature of felsic igneous rocks, providing a proxy which enables regional-scale mapping of the crust and crustal growth. Geoscience Australia Record 2013/44, with accompanying downloadable isotopic datasets and images, details the theory behind the methodology, the advantages and disadvantages of the technique, as well as comparing results of the isotopic map with current knowledge of Australian crustal blocks and tectonics. It also investigates the potential of the isotopic map for identifying metallogenic regions, with examples regarding nickel, volcanogenic massive sulphide, iron ore-copper-gold and porphyry copper-gold mineral systems.

The Neodymium depleted mantle model age map of Australia: explanatory notes and user guide is available as a free download.

4. Australian Operating Mines Map 2013

The recently released Australian Operating Mines 2013 map shows operating mines, developing mines and selected mineral deposits in Australia at 1:7.5 million scale. This map broadly illustrates the geographic distribution of the mines and deposits and the range of selected, largely grouped, commodities. This information is superimposed on a generalised surface geology map of Australia and an aeromagnetic image in grey scale.

5. Update on geophysical data releases

Geoscience Australia manages the geophysical data acquisition programs in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

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.

6. About Minerals Alert

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