Australian Mining History Association (Charters Towers July 2014): Offshore resource potential is clear with strong prospects identified, international certainty of tenure exists through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the regulatory/legal system is well established, yet future offshore mineral prospects remains elusive. Deep sea mining's blue sky potential has been spruiked for so long it genuinely qualifies as mining history, but remains limited to future prospects. Historical targets have included diamonds, polymetallic nodules, cobalt on seamounts, base and precious metal rich hydrothermal vents, construction materials, coal and deep leads of tin or gold extending from onshore areas. Australia's seabed jurisdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is over 16 million square kilometres, twice the area of Australian land. The Commonwealth Offshore Minerals Act 1994 relates to the exploration and production of these commodities, but in contrast to the offshore petroleum sector little activity has been recorded. Offshore resource potential is clear with strong prospects identified, international certainty of tenure exists through UNCLOS and the regulatory/legal system is well established, yet future offshore mineral prospects remains elusive. This is despite Australia based companies engaging in exploration and proposing developments in the South Pacific. Having identified the problem of lack of commercial interest, could government take actions to rectify the situation and encourage positive economic outcomes stemming from sustainable and environmentally responsible resource development in Australia's world scale offshore regime

The Bulong vermiculite deposit, situated 20 miles east of Kalgoorlie was discussed with members of the West Australian Mines Inspection Branch. The geology, quality, and production potential of the deposit are discussed in this report.

This report comprises notes concerning the situation, occurrence, analysis, and production of dolomite at Cow Flat.

A visit was paid to the mine on March 14th, 1945, during a field season at Mount Bischoff. The purpose of the visit was to gain some general idea of the potential importance of the deposits as a source of asbestos fibre. The location and access, workings, geology, and the grade of orebodies are discussed in this report. An accompanying sketch plan of the deposit is included.

It has been fairly firmly established that the fineness of the gold in any ore deposit varies with the depth from the surface at which the deposit was formed and as a corollary to this, that it is dependent upon the temperature and pressure at the time of deposition. This relationship is such that, under certain conditions, the gold fineness, taken into consideration with other recognised criteria, furnishes a very sensitive and reliable guide to the relative temperature of ore formation, at least within the epithermal and the upper part of the mesothermal range. The definition, determination, relation to deposits, and application of gold fineness are discussed in this report.

The presence of laterite described as high-silica bauxite at Mt. Roe on Cobourg Peninsula had been reported early in this century by H.Y.L. Brown, who submitted a specimen for analysis. In the absence of information about the mineralogical composition of the rock the chemical analysis alone affords a very incomplete description of the material. It was considered that the rock might be somewhat similar to the commercially valuable high-silica bauxite which occurs in the Netherlands East Indies and Malaya. At the request of the Australian Aluminium Production Commission the writer was instructed to examine the area in the vicinity of Mounts Roe and Bedwell, and to sample and report on any accessible bodies of apparently aluminous laterite. The locality, topography, and general geology of the area are briefly described. Accounts of the laterite occurrence at Mounts Roe, Bedwell, Kura, and Victoria are given. The mineralogical character of the laterite is described.

Australia's Identified Mineral Resources is an annual national assessment that takes a long-term view of Australian mineral resources likely to be available for mining. The assessment also includes evaluations of long-term trends in mineral resources, world rankings, summaries of significant exploration results and brief reviews of mining industry developments.

Australia's Identified Mineral Resources is an annual national assessment that takes a long-term view of Australian mineral resources likely to be available for mining. The assessment also includes evaluations of long-term trends in mineral resources, world rankings, summaries of significant exploration results and brief reviews of mining industry developments.

Dr Andy Barnicoat's presentation at the China Mining Conference 2012 in Tianjin.

This short video summarises the value of Geoscience Australia's work to the discovery, development and export of Australia's mineral and energy commodities. The video is from a series of six films produced to communicate Geoscience Australia's value to the nation. Further information about the agency's work in this area can be found at http://www.ga.gov.au/value-to-the-nation