Authors / CoAuthors
McKay, W.J. | Miezitis, Y. | Exon, N.F. | Sait, R.
Abstract
The known and potential (undiscovered) mineral resources in Australia's near shore environment and its Exclusive Economic Zone are poorly known. The available information on offshore mineral resources comes from limited exploration by private companies and from reconnaissance surveys undertaken by Commonwealth and State geoscience agencies. Past and current exploration and mining activities have focussed on construction materials, heavy mineral sands, and high value placer deposits of gold and diamonds in shallow water nearshore environments. Currently there are two major offshore dredging operations, sand for construction purposes in Moreton Bay near Brisbane and limesand for cement manufacture south of Fremantle. Phosphate and manganese nodules (and potentially volcanogenic and carbonate-hosted massive sulphides), which occur typically in some deeper water environments, are likely to be of interest in the longer term. The discovery and eventual economic extraction of offshore mineral deposits pose significant technical, political and environmental challenges that require they be considered only as possible future mineral resources in the medium to long term. Scientific research as well as offshore exploration is needed to acquire data and build up geoscientific knowledge on known and new types of offshore mineral deposits, establish their distribution in Australia's offshore regions and evaluate their possible wealth and future use.
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nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
63481
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
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2601
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Keywords
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- External PublicationConference Paper
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- marine jurisdiction
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- marine survey
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- mineral deposits
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- mineral exploration
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- geochemistry
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- marine
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2005-01-01T00:00:00
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geoscientificInformation
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