Uranium content of igneous rocks of Australia 1:5 million maps - Explanatory notes and discussion

Magmatic-related uranium resources are globally significant. Nevertheless, this class of uranium mineralisation is poorly represented among Australia's total known resources. This is despite the presence of numerous uranium-rich magmatic events distributed across a large part of the country, and across a vast span of geological time. To assess the potential for magmatic-related uranium mineral systems in Australia, three maps have been produced showing the uranium contents of Australian igneous rocks. Geological datasets incorporating both solid and surface geology, as well as geochemical data, have been compiled from a diverse range of open-file sources. This Record is intended to provide background information relating to these data sources and methodologies used in the production of the maps.


The maps illustrate the large spatial extent of uranium-rich igneous rocks in Australia, with occurrences in all jurisdictions where uranium exploration is currently permitted. The maps also permit ready recognition of particularly enriched rocks on a pluton or wider scale. Identification of these areas has application to exploration for magmatic-related uranium systems, as well as certain basin-related uranium systems, where uranium-rich igneous rocks formed part of the metal source.


Analysis of the compiled geochemical data reveal that high uranium content is most commonly associated with evidence of extensive fractional crystallisation. Fluorine contents, bulk rock composition, melt temperature, and temporal setting are also important. This preliminary interpretation demonstrates that an applied understanding of well-known igneous processes is able to account for the observed uranium content in uraniferous igneous rocks. Recommendations are given for future avenues of investigation into the prospectivity of Australian igneous rocks for magmatic-related uranium mineral systems, based on an understanding of the geochemical behaviour of uranium in igneous processes.

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Date (Publication)
2009-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/68762

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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
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Geoscience Australia

 Canberra
Author

Schofield, A.

 1
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Record

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2009/017

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9781921498749

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MNHD
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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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  • Geoscientific information
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Unknown

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Product data repository: Various Formats

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Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

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  • GA Publication

  • Record

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  • commodities

Theme

  • mineral exploration

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  • AU

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

  • Earth Sciences

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  • Published_External

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

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CC-BY

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4.0

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

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License

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
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https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

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Unclassified
Language
English
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UTF8

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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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OnLine resource

Download the Record (pdf)

Download the Record (pdf)

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  • pdf

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Unknown

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Non geographic dataset
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GA Publication

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Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/a05f7892-eab7-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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Resource scope
Document
Name

GA Record

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Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

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eCatId/68762

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https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-eab7-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-22T08:43:28
Date info (Creation)
2009-03-30T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

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commodities mineral exploration

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