This web map service shows the location and status of Australian operating mines, mines under development and mines under care and maintenance. Developing mines are deposits where the project has a positive feasibility study, development has commenced or all approvals have been received. Mines under care and maintenance have known resource estimations and may be mined or developed in the future.

This web map service shows the location and status of Australian operating mines, mines under development and mines under care and maintenance. Developing mines are deposits where the project has a positive feasibility study, development has commenced or all approvals have been received. Mines under care and maintenance have known resource estimations and may be mined or developed in the future.

The Australian Mine Waste database contains mine waste features including mine waste name, waste type, waste status, storage type and geographical location. It also includes relational links to the associated mineral deposit, the associated deposit commodities as well as mineral deposit models modified from the Critical Mineral Mapping Initiative mineral deposit classification scheme (Hofstra et al., 2021). Where available, additional information has been included such as structure type, volume and rehabilitation status. This data has been compiled from published references and public information such as company reports. The resource is accessible via the Geoscience Australia Portal (https://portal.ga.gov.au/persona/minewaste)

This map shows the locations of mines operating at the end of 2018, developing mines and mineral deposits in Australia. Developing mines are deposits with a proven minable resource and where mines site development has commenced or where a decision to mine has been announced. Mineral deposits highlight areas of know mineralisation with a proven or probable resource, that are not currently being mined or developed. Closed mines or mines not operating at the end of 2018 are not shown.

<div>This data accompanies the Australian Operating Mines Map 2021 (twenty-second edition) March 2022. The Australian Operating Mines Map 2021 may be downloaded from the Geoscience Australia website at: https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/146335</div>

This web map service shows the location and status of Australian operating mines, mines under development and mines under care and maintenance. Developing mines are deposits where the project has a positive feasibility study, development has commenced or all approvals have been received. Mines under care and maintenance have known resource estimations and may be mined or developed in the future.

This map shows the locations of mines operating at the end of 2017, developing mines and mineral deposits in Australia. Developing mines are deposits with a proven minable resource and where mines site development has commenced or where a decision to mine has been announced. Mineral deposits highlight areas of know mineralisation with a proven or probable resource, that are not currently being mined or developed. Closed mines or mines not operating at the end of 2017 are not shown.

Mineral exploration ideally involves researching geological potential within the constraints of economic feasibility. Nevertheless, explicit consideration of economic factors is often delayed until late in the exploration cycle. This is not ideal. Like mineral prospectivity, projected economic feasibility can be used to refine the search space and thereby reduce the risks associated with mineral exploration undercover. Here, we outline an exploration strategy based on the notion of identifying economic fairways—that is, regions permissive to resource development from an economic perspective. The approach appraises the economics of Au, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, potash and phosphate deposits by modelling revenue against capital expenditure (such as the costs of employment, mining overburden and access to infrastructure). We demonstrate the economic fairways approach through regional assessment of a Tennant Creek–style iron oxide–copper–gold deposit across northern Australia. Our results indicate that such a mineral deposit is expected to be economically viable across much of northern Australia, including in areas with several hundreds of metres of overburden. Our analysis sheds light on the need for accurate cover thickness models, without which undercover economic fairways cannot be defined. Our online tool benefits mineral explorers, and also helps to inform investors about the relative strengths of potential mineral projects; policy makers could use it to plan regional infrastructure development in frontier mineral provinces. <b>Citation:</b> Haynes, M.W., Walsh, S.D.C., Czarnota, K., Northey, S.A. and Yellishetty, M., 2020. Economic fairways assessments across northern Australia. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.

This map shows the locations of mines operating at the end of 2019, developing mines and miners under care and maintenance in Australia. Developing mines are deposits with a proven minable resource and where mines site development has commenced or where a decision to mine has been announced. Mines under care and maintenance show mines that could restart with investment or a change in commodity price and demand. Closed mines at the end of 2019 are not shown.

Geoscience Australia is developing technology, infrastructure and the tools needed through its Positioning Australia program to provide accurate, reliable and real-time positioning information across Australia and its maritime zones. This capability is being achieved through technology and infrastructure initiatives described in the flyer. This flyer was created for the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) taking place on 31 Jan to 3 Feb 2022.