Minerals Alert June 2016

June 2016

A monthly online newsletter with product news, data releases and project highlights relating to the minerals and energy exploration industries.

  1. Workshop on Australia's Ni-Cu-PGE mineral potential
  2. Geoscience Australia presentations at the Australian Earth Sciences Convention
  3. Lithium Australia
  4. Update on geophysical data releases
  5. About Minerals Alert

1. Workshop on Australia's Ni-Cu-PGE mineral potential

Geoscience Australia and the Australian Institute of Geoscientists will present a workshop in Perth on 10 June describing a continental-scale study of Australia's potential for intrusion-hosted nickel-copper-platinum-group element (Ni-Cu-PGE) ore deposits. The report and accompanying digital spatial data were published recently.

The results of the GA study highlight known mineralised provinces, their extensions under cover, and several greenfields regions representing new 'search spaces' for possible Ni-Cu-PGE mineralisation. The GIS-based mapping of prospectivity was based on the mineral systems concept, and integrates a wide range of continental datasets including: novel views of seismic and other geophysical and isotopic data (e.g., Nd) to map crustal and mantle architecture; a new map dataset of mafic-ultramafic magmatic events including Large Igneous Provinces; and geochemical discriminants linked to the spatial-temporal distribution of possible host rocks.

Place: Australian Resources Research Centre auditorium, 26 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington, Western Australia
Date: 10 June 2016
Time: 10:15 to 14:00, registration from 09:45
Cost: Free, including light lunch
Registration: Email Jocelyn Thomson jaytee@iinet.net.au or call the AIG on 08 9355 2164

Further details of the program can be found here.

2. Geoscience Australia presentations at the Australian Earth Sciences Convention

Geoscience Australia will be presenting new data and interpretations from a variety of regions and disciplines at the upcoming Australian Earth Sciences Convention (AESC), to be held in Adelaide from 26 to 30 June, 2016. This will include work from the following projects:

  • The Stavely Project in western Victoria where Geoscience Australia, in collaboration with the Geological Survey of Victoria, has drilled new stratigraphic holes and developed new understanding of the potential for Cambrian arc-related mineral systems.
  • The Thomson Project in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, where Geoscience Australia, the Geological Survey of Queensland and the Geological Survey of New South Wales have produced a new basement geology map, and conducted an extensive geochronology and isotope geochemistry program, providing insights into the geological evolution of the largely buried Thomson Orogen.
  • The Nullarbor Basement project, in collaboration with the Geological Survey of South Australia and the Geological Survey of Western Australia. This project is centred around a new reflection seismic transect that crosses the Nullarbor Plain from the central Gawler Craton, across the buried Coompana Province, to the Albany-Fraser Province.
  • Geoscience Australia staff will also contribute to various symposia and workshops associated with the AESC, including:
    • UNCOVER Symposium: The future of under cover exploration
    • UNCOVER Isotope Geology: A window into crustal evolution, fertility and the geodynamics of Earth

See the AESC website for details and a draft program.

We hope to see many of you in Adelaide. Please drop by the Geoscience Australia booth at AESC.

For further information, email clientservices@ga.gov.au or phone 1800 800 173.

3. Lithium Australia

The large majority of Australia's Lithium resources are contained within pegmatites, most of which are Archean in age. Available information on pegmatites is variable, making exploration targeting potentially difficult. A number of direct and proxy datasets are available that can be of assistance - links to these datasets and some suggested methodologies are outlined on Geoscience Australia's Critical Commodities webpage.

For further information, email clientservices@ga.gov.au or phone 1800 800 173.

4. Update on geophysical data releases

Geoscience Australia is managing the geophysical data acquisition programs in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory on behalf of the state/territory geological surveys.

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

To obtain further details on the survey acquisition, please email Client Services; or phone 1800 800 173.

5. About Minerals Alert

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