The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia Project -- Data Release 1: The Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian Region

The National Geochemical Survey of Australia (<a href=" http://www.ga.gov.au/ngsa" title="NGSA website" target="_blank">NGSA</a>) is Australia’s only internally consistent, continental-scale <a href=" http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2011.020" title="NGSA geochemical atlas and dataset" target="_blank">geochemical atlas and dataset</a>. The present dataset contains additional mineralogical data obtained on NGSA samples selected from the Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian (<a href=" https://www.ga.gov.au/eftf/projects/darling-curnamona-delamerian" title="DCD website" target="_blank">DCD</a>) region of southeastern Australia for the first partial data release of the Heavy Mineral Map of Australia (HMMA) project. The HMMA, a collaborative project between Geoscience Australia and Curtin University underpinned by a pilot project establishing its feasibility, is part of the Australian Government-funded Exploring for the Future (<a href=" https://www.ga.gov.au/eftf" title="EFTF website" target="_blank">EFTF</a>) program.

The selected 223 NGSA sediment samples fall within the DCD polygon plus an approximately one-degree buffer. The samples were taken on average from 60 to 80 cm depth in floodplain landforms, dried and sieved to a 75-430 µm grainsize fraction, and the contained heavy minerals (HMs; i.e., those with a specific gravity >2.9 g/cm<sup>3</sup>) were separated by dense fluids and mounted on cylindrical epoxy mounts. After polishing and carbon-coating, the mounts were subjected to automated mineralogical analysis on a TESCAN® Integrated Mineral Analyzer (TIMA). Using scanning electron microscopy and backscatter electron imaging integrated with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, the TIMA identified over 140 different HMs in the DCD area. The dataset, consisting of over 29 million individual mineral grains identified, was quality controlled and validated by an expert team. The data released here can be visualised, explored and downloaded using an online, bespoke mineral network analysis tool (<a href=" https://geoscienceaustralia.shinyapps.io/mna4hm/" title="MNA website" target="_blank">MNA</a>) built on a cloud-based platform. Accompanying this report are a data file of TIMA results and a mineralogy vocabulary file.

When completed in 2023, it is hoped the HMMA project will positively impact mineral exploration and prospectivity modelling around Australia, as well as have other applications in earth and environmental sciences.

Identification info

Date (Creation): 2022-06-16

Date (Publication): 2022-07-07T03:37:23

Date (Revision): 2022-07-06T23:16:20

Citation identifier: Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/146921

Citation identifier: Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2022.031

Cited responsible party

Role	Organisation / Individual Name	Details
Author	de Caritat, P.
Author	Bastrakov, E.	MEG Internal Contact
Author	Walker, A.T.	Curtin University External Contact
Author	McInnes, B.I.A	External Contact
Publisher	Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)	Voice

Issue identification: RECORD: 2022/031

Purpose: Provide a preliminary data release for the continental-scale regolith Heavy Mineral Map of Australia

Status: Under development

Spatial representation type

Topic category

Geoscientific information

Extent

Maintenance and update frequency: As needed

Resource format

Title: Product data repository: Various Formats

Website: 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

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf

Environmental Management
Isotope Geochemistry
Exploration Geochemistry
EARTH SCIENCES

Keywords

Data Package

Keywords

Heavy Minerals

Keywords

Catchment Outlet Sediments

Keywords

National Geochemical Survey of Australia

Keywords

NGSA

Keywords

Exploring for the Future

Keywords

EFTF

Keywords

Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian

Keywords

Regolith Mineralogy

Keywords

Mineralogical Mapping

Keywords

Published_External

Resource constraints

Title: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title: CC-BY

Edition: 4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints: License

Use constraints: License

Resource constraints

Title: Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date: 2018-11-01T00:00:00

Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification: Unclassified

Associated resource

Association Type: Operated on by

Title: Mineralogy WMS

Citation identifier: 147399

Citation identifier: 6cb231b7-61ea-4992-88a7-0b29d94585cf

Website

https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/service/ga/147399

Link to eCat metadata record landing page

Associated resource

Association Type: Operated on by

Title: Mineralogy WFS

Citation identifier: 147400

Citation identifier: 5db95ed9-9c31-452c-8483-024efca4ce74

Website

https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/service/ga/147400

Link to eCat metadata record landing page

Associated resource

Association Type: Operated on by

Title: Mineralogy WMTS

Citation identifier: 147403

Citation identifier: 782d63ca-95fb-4f20-9c64-ff937d50d716

Website

https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/service/ga/147403

Link to eCat metadata record landing page

Language: English

Character encoding: UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact

Role	Organisation / Individual Name	Details
Distributor	Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)	Voice

OnLine resource: Download the Record (pdf) [4.0 MB]

Download the Record (pdf) [4.0 MB]

Distribution format

OnLine resource: Download Appendix A – Observations Data File (xlsx) [196 KB]

Download Appendix A – Observations Data File (xlsx) [196 KB]

Distribution format

xlsx

OnLine resource: Download Appendix B – Yield, Observations, Volume Percent, Weight Percent, and Median Grainsize Data File (xlsx) [834 KB]

Download Appendix B – Yield, Observations, Volume Percent, Weight Percent, and Median Grainsize Data File (xlsx) [834 KB]

Distribution format

xlsx

OnLine resource: Download Appendix C – Minerals Vocabulary File (xlsx) [44 KB]

Download Appendix C – Minerals Vocabulary File (xlsx) [44 KB]

Distribution format

xlsx

OnLine resource: Download Appendix D - Project Poster File (pdf) [1.5 MB]

Download Appendix D - Project Poster File (pdf) [1.5 MB]

Distribution format

OnLine resource: Mineralogy WMTS

Mineralogy WMTS

Distribution format

OGC:WMTS

OnLine resource: Mineralogy WMS

Mineralogy WMS

Distribution format

OGC:WMS

OnLine resource: Mineralogy WFS

Mineralogy WFS

Distribution format

OGC:WFS

Resource lineage

Statement

Caritat & Cooper, 2011. The National Geochemical Survey of Australia ( http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2011.020)

Caritat et al., 2020. Towards a heavy mineral map of the Australian continent - A feasibility study ( http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2020.031)

Reference System Information

Reference system identifier: EPSG/GDA94 (EPSG:4283)

Metadata constraints

Title: Australian Government Security Classification System

Edition date: 2018-11-01T00:00:00

Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification: Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier

urn:uuid/a9449585-1eac-4dac-8cb7-7893fb8f0a26

Title: GeoNetwork UUID

Contact

Role	Organisation / Individual Name	Details
Point of contact	Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)	Voice
Point of contact	Main, P.	MEG Internal Contact
Owner	Main, P.	MEG Internal Contact

Title: National Geochemical Survey of Australia: The Geochemical Atlas of Australia: Dataset

Citation identifier: 0dc4a02b-21e9-9b28-e053-12a3070af396

Citation identifier: 82869

Type of resource

Resource scope: Document

Name: GA Publication; GA Record

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier: eCatId/146921

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/2145fe53-1898-4e0a-86d1-f6298daa5809

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au:80/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/2145fe53-1898-4e0a-86d1-f6298daa5809

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au:80/geonetwork/accessDenied.jsp/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/2145fe53-1898-4e0a-86d1-f6298daa5809

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a9449585-1eac-4dac-8cb7-7893fb8f0a26

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/accessDenied.jsp/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a9449585-1eac-4dac-8cb7-7893fb8f0a26

Date info (Creation): 2020-04-28T05:55:44

Date info (Revision): 2020-04-28T05:55:44

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/135585

Spatial extent

Provided by

Access to the portal

Read here the full details and access to the data.

Associated resources

Not available

Simple

Identification info

Extent

Resource format

Resource constraints

Resource constraints

Associated resource

Associated resource

Associated resource

Distribution Information

Resource lineage

Reference System Information

Metadata constraints

Metadata

Type of resource

Alternative metadata reference

Metadata standard

Metadata standard

Metadata standard

Spatial extent

Keywords

Provided by

Associated resources