Authors / CoAuthors
Jaques, A.L. | Subhash, J. | Evans, N. | Huelatt, M.B. | Miezitis, Y.
Abstract
Australia hosts a large number of world-class deposits that underpin its position as one of the world's most important suppliers of minerals, ranking in the top 6 producers of bauxite, coal, copper, diamonds, gold, iron ore, lead, manganese, mineral sands, nickel, silver, tantalum, and zinc. To assess Australia's potential for further world-class deposits AGSO has developed a national scale GIS using a mineral systems approach based on identification of the critical elements of selected ore deposit types relevant to Australian terranes and time-event plots of key events within particular terranes. Other important components in the GIS are AGSO's continental scale geological, geophysical and mineral deposit/occurrence databases. The GIS includes layers of mineral potential, regional-scale assessment criteria, grade and tonnage curves for deposit styles, and an estimate of the certainty of assessment. Initially the GIS and outputs are at the 1:5 million geo-province scale but will followed by more detailed assessment at 1:1 million and 1:250 000 scale. Density maps of Au, Ag, Cu, Ni, Sn, Pb and Zn and U mineral occurrences define provinces with anomalously high metal contents and outline the major mineral provinces. Most of the regions (but with notable exceptions) with anomalously high distribution of mineral occurrences contain one or more world-class deposits of that metal(s). A comparison of the density plots with the distribution of favourable host rocks based on trap and/or source characteristics for the particular metal(s) from the GIS delineates areas that have a potential to host similar deposits. These plots highlight that much of Australia's undiscovered potential lies under regolith or shallow sedimentary cover. Large areas under shallow cover (< 500m) with mineral potential can be delineated using the mineral occurrence density plots and either the continent and regional scale potential field data, or the Australian Crustal Elements Map that divides Australia into distinct geophysical domains based on the magnetic and gravity characteristics of the basement.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
36307
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Custodian
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Keywords
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- External PublicationAbstract
- ( Theme )
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- mineral exploration
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2001-01-01T00:00:00
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geoscientificInformation
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