Minerals Alert May 2014

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

  1. Characterising the cover at Geoscience Australia: recent and upcoming results
  2. Update on geophysical data releases
  3. About Minerals Alert

1. Characterising the cover at Geoscience Australia: recent and upcoming results

Geoscience Australia is actively engaged in the UNCOVER agenda and a number of recent and ongoing activities tackle the theme of "characterising the cover". Of note are the results of:

  1. A continental scale geochemical survey, National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA), which includes an atlas and its underpinning dataset.
  2. A series of national ASTER mineral maps, which, together with the NGSA, allow an assessment of geochemical and mineralogical patterns of the surficial regolith of Australia for the first time.
  3. A report on the mineral potential of salt lakes in Australia, with particular focus on potash, lithium, boron and uranium. This report particularly highlights the potential for potash in some Australian salt lakes and a follow-up study was undertaken this financial year at Lake Woods.
  4. A regional geochemical survey in the Southern Thomson Orogen was conducted last spring and covered the Toompine and Eulo 1:250,000 map sheets in southern Queensland. This new dataset will be appended to the previous CRC LEME geochemical survey over ten 1:250,000 mapsheets in northwestern New South Wales [PDF 41.5MB] External site link and interpreted in a minerals system context within the Southern Thomson regional project.
  5. Decision-tree modelling of various datasets (geochemistry, geophysics, topography, climate, etc.) to help understand the distribution and controls of various characteristics of the cover, for instance soil carbonate, uranium concentration, or geochemical pathfinders.
  6. A statistical analysis of NGSA data under way in collaboration with the Geological Survey of Canada (Natural Resources Canada) is yielding preliminary results that suggest that the surface regolith in Australia contains a subtle geochemical signature of the lithosphere elements defined deep within the crust.
  7. A seamless regolith map of Australia is in progress and a first edition covering Queensland, Northern Territory and South Australia was released in 2013. Remaining states are the subject of ongoing work.

2. Update on geophysical data releases

Geoscience Australia manages the geophysical data acquisition programs in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland 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.

3. About Minerals Alert

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