Product catalogue
Identifying potential sources of critical minerals in mineral systems using the Critical Minerals in Ores (CMiO) database
Although critical minerals (CMs) are currently produced from existing mines, their distributions in many mineral systems are, in many cases, poorly known, raising the possibility that CMs are not fully recovered from some ores. The Critical Minerals in Ores (CMiO) database, compiled by Geoscience Australia, United States Geological Survey, Geological Survey of Canada, and Geological Survey of Queensland as part of the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative, contains high-quality geochemical data from global ore deposits classified using a common framework, enabling global comparison.
Using CMiO and other data, we have undertaken preliminary investigations on distributions of CMs in mineral systems including porphyry Cu (PCu), iron oxide-Cu-Au (IOCG), iron oxide-apatite (IOA), rare earth element (REE), and Zn-dominated systems. The PCu systems are enriched in Re, Pt, Pd, Se, and Te relative to the continental crust. At the Pebble (USA) PCu deposit, Re and Se are enriched in Cu ore zones; whereas Te is enriched immediately outside these zones. Although generally not recovered, alkalic PCu deposits (e.g., Galore Creek, Canada; Cadia, Australia) can be enriched in Pd and Pt. Cobalt and some REEs occur in IOCG systems, with Co enriched in magnetite-dominant IOCG systems (e.g., Ernest Henry, Australia; Kwyjibo, Canada), and REEs enriched in IOA (e.g., Pea Ridge, USA) and hematite-dominant IOCG systems (e.g., Olympic Dam, Australia).
The enrichment of individual REEs depends strongly on mineral system type. In magmatic and metasomatic systems, light REEs (Ce to Sm) and Y are enriched in hematite-rich IOCG, IOA and carbonatite (e.g., Saint-Honoré, Canada) deposits, whereas heavy REEs (Eu to Lu) are enriched in deposits associated with peralkaline magmatism (e.g., Strange Lake, Canada). Unconformity-related REE (e.g., Maw, Canada; Wolverine, Australia) and ionic clay (e.g., Koopamurra, Australia) deposits also tend to be heavy REE-rich, whereas shale-hosted (e.g., SBH, Canada) and phosphorite (e.g., Ardmore, Australia) deposits can be enriched in heavy and/or light REEs.
Zinc deposits are important sources of Ga, Ge, and In. Assessment of the distribution of these CMs in Zn deposits suggest that Ge is concentrated in deposits formed from low temperature, oxidized fluids (Mississippi Valley-type: Tres Marias, Mexico; sediment-hosted massive sulfides: Red Dog, USA), whereas In is enriched in deposits formed from higher temperature, reduced fluids (volcanic-hosted massive sulfide: Kidd Creek, Canada; skarn: Isabel, Australia). These examples demonstrate the utility of the CMiO and other datasets for characterizing CMs distribution in individual ore deposit and predicting CMs potentials of mineral systems.
This abstract was presented at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Geological Association of Canada (GAC), Mineralogical Association of Canada (MAC) and Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits, Sudbury, Canada May 2023
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2023-02-27
- Date (Publication)
- 2024-02-01T00:07:00
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/147750
Identifier
- Codespace
-
Digital Object Identifier
- Cited responsible party
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Author Huston, D.
MEG Internal Contact Author Bastrakov, E.
MEG Internal Contact Author Case, G.
United States Geological Survey External Contact Author Graham, G.E.
United States Geological Survey Denver CO 80225 United States External Contact Author Hofstra, A.
United States Geological Survey External Contact Author Lawley, C.
Geological Survey of Canada External Contact Author Lisitsin, V.
Geological Survey of Queensland External Contact Author Wang, B.
United States Geological Survey External Contact
- Name
-
GAC-MAC-SGA Annual Meeting 24-29 May 2023, Sudbury, Canada
- Purpose
-
Abstract for submission to the Joint Annual Meeting of the Geological Association of Canada (GAC), Mineralogical Association of Canada (MAC) and Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits, Sudbury, Canada May 2023
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact Point of contact Huston, D.
MEG Internal Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
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
-
-
EARTH SCIENCES
-
- Keywords
-
-
Critical Minerals in Ore - CMiO
-
- Keywords
-
-
potential sources
-
- Keywords
-
-
database
-
- Keywords
-
-
Published_External
-
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
-
CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
- Other constraints
-
(c) Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2023
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice facsimile
- OnLine resource
-
Link to Conference Page
Link to Conference Page
- Distribution format
-
Resource lineage
- Statement
-
Abstract for submission to the Joint Annual Meeting of the Geological Association of Canada (GAC), Mineralogical Association of Canada (MAC) and Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits, Sudbury, Canada May 2023
- Hierarchy level
- Collection hardware
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/5c33490c-4217-4919-9e1b-0ce9a51c741a
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Owner Huston, D
Geoscience Australia Internal Contact Point of contact Huston, D.
MEG Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
-
Conference Abstract and Presentations
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/147750
- Date info (Creation)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
- Date info (Revision)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
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