Recognition of geochemical footprints of mineral systems in the regolith at regional to continental scales

Understanding the character of Australia's extensive regolith cover is crucial to the continuing success of mineral exploration. We hypothesize that the regolith contains geochemical fingerprints of processes related to the development and preservation of mineral systems at a range of scales. We test this hypothesis by analysing the composition of surface sediments within greenfield regional (southern Thomson Orogen) and continental (Australia) study areas. In the southern Thomson Orogen area, the first principal component (PC1) derived in our study (Ca, Sr, Cu, Mg, Au, and Mo at one end; rare earth elements (REEs) and Th at the other) is very similar to the empirical vector successfully used by a local company exploring for Cu-Au mineralisation (enrichment in Sr, Ca and Au concomitant with depletion in REEs). Mapping the spatial distribution of PC1 in the region reveals several areas of elevated values and possible mineralisation potential. One of the strongest targets in the PC1 map is located between Brewarrina and Bourke in northern New South Wales. Here both historical and recent exploration drilling has intersected mineralisation with up to 1 % Cu, 0.1 g/t Au, and 717 ppm Zn, purportedly related to a volcanic arc setting. The analysis of a comparable geochemical dataset at the continental scale yields a similar PC1 (Ca, Sr, Mg, Cu, Au, and Mo at one end; REEs and Th at the other) to the regional study. Mapping PC1 at the continental scale shows patterns that (1) are compatible with the regional study, and (2) reveal several geological regions possibly with an enhanced potential for this style of Cu-Au mineralisation. These include well-endowed mineral provinces such as the Curnamona, southern Pilbara, and Capricorn regions, but also some greenfield regions such as the Albany-Fraser/western Eucla, western Murray, and Eromanga geological regions. We conclude that the geochemical composition of Australia's regolith may hold critical information pertaining to mineralisation within/beneath it.

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Date (Creation)
2016-05-02T13:20:00
Date (Publication)
2017-05-16T09:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/100160

Citation identifier
Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08120099.2017.1259184

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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

de Caritat, P.

 1
Co-author

Main, P.T.

 2
Co-author

Grunsky, E.

 3
Co-author

Mann, A.

 4
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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division

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Main, P.

 MEG Internal Contact
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  • Geoscientific information

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N
S
E
W


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As needed

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Title

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

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification: Fields of Research

  • Exploration Geochemistry

  • Applied Statistics

Keywords

  • 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

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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 article (pdf)

Download the article (pdf)

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  • pdf

OnLine resource

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Mineral Systems Branch

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Product

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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

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Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/f8feb49f-db06-434d-9992-75a96727ed09

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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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Point of contact

Main, P.

 MEG Internal Contact
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Main, P.

 MEG Internal Contact
Point of contact

Main, P.

 MEG Internal Contact

Type of resource

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Document

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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/100160

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https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/f8feb49f-db06-434d-9992-75a96727ed09

Date info (Creation)
2016-05-02T13:24:56
Date info (Revision)
2018-04-22T08:23:37

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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N
S
E
W


Keywords

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification: Fields of Research
Applied Statistics Exploration Geochemistry

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