Product catalogue
Geophysical response of heavy-mineral sand deposits at Jerusalem Creek, New South Wales
BMR has started evaluating how geophysical methods might assist in exploration for deposits of the heavy minerals rutile, zircon, ilmenite, and monazite. Historically, exploration for these heavy minerals has concentrated on the search for high-grade onshore beach-sand deposits, and has employed surface sampling and shallow drilling. However there is a growing awareness that future exploration targets are likely to be low grade and perhaps either deeply buried or located offshore. Exploration directed towards these targets will require new exploration methods, particularly those which offer remote sensing capabilities. BMR has begun a program of test surveys and laboratory investigations to establish the geophysical response of heavy-mineral deposits. As the first stage of these investigations, airborne and ground geophysical surveys were made over heavy-mineral deposits in the Jerusalem Creek area of NSW during 1975. Jerusalem Creek was chosen for the initial field investigations because of the variety and extent of heavy-mineral deposits in the area. The airborne survey (Fig. 1) was carried out over an area of 200 sq km of coastal plain south of Evans Head, and used magnetic and gamma spectrometer methods. Ground surveys were conducted over the Evans West and GL 10 deposits, using magnetic, radiometric and induced polarization methods. The locations of the Evans West and GL 10 deposits are shown in Figure 1. The Evans West deposit is 2 km in length, 3 m thick, 30 m wide, and is covered by 3 m of overburden. The deposit has a fairly sharp grade cut-off at its boundaries, and averages about 10 percent heavy minerals comprising 36 percent zircon, 35 percent rutile, 25 percent magnetics, minor monazite and other minerals. The magnetic fraction is largely ilmenite. The GL 10 deposit has a similar mineral composition but the deposit consists of several parallel leads up to 40 m wide. The average grade of the deposit is only 1-5 percent, and the deposit is buried under only 0.5 m of cover. The magnetic, radiometric and induced polarization methods were used because the mineral assemblage of the Jerusalem Creek deposits suggests susceptibility, radioactivity and induced polarization contrasts between ore and the surrounding sands. The Evans West and GL 10 deposits were chosen as ground survey sites because extensive mine development drilling provided excellent geological control for the interpretation of geophysical results. To establish the physical properties of heavy-mineral ores and to assist interpretation of the geophysical surveys, laboratory measurements of susceptibility, induced polarization and radioactivity were made of ore and sand samples collected from the Evans West deposit. The surveys at Jerusalem Creek were carried out in close co-operation with Associated Minerals Consolidated (AMA), whose assistance in the planning and carrying out of the survey is gratefully acknowledged.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Publication)
- 1977-01-01T00:00:00
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/80924
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics
Canberra Author Robson, D.F.
1 Author Sampath, N.
2
- Name
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BMR Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics
- Issue identification
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2:2:149-154
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Custodian Corp
Owner Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Custodian Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Unknown
Resource format
- Title
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Product data repository: Various Formats
- Website
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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
- Keywords
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GA Publication
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Journal
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- Keywords
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NSW
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- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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Earth Sciences
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
- Title
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
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CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- OnLine resource
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Journal article (pdf)
Journal article (pdf)
- Distribution format
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pdf
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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Unknown
- Hierarchy level
- Non geographic dataset
- Other
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GA Publication
- Description
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Source data not available.
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
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urn:uuid/fae9173a-6f79-71e4-e044-00144fdd4fa6
- Title
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GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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AGSO BMR Journal
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/80924
- Date info (Revision)
- 2018-04-20T06:10:22
- Date info (Creation)
- 2014-06-03T00:00:00
Metadata standard
- Title
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AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-3
- Title
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Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
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Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551