Product catalogue
The integration of groundwater and rock chemistry to evaluate mineral prospectivity in the Georgina Basin
<div>The push of mineral exploration under cover requires developing new geochemical exploration approaches. Detailed hydrogeochemistry addresses these needs and is valuable as a non-invasive mineral exploration technique that can identify lithological changes and dispersion signatures associated with mineralisation. Here we integrate whole-rock geochemistry and hydrogeochemistry to evaluate suitable geochemical tracers in groundwater for detecting phosphate and/or Pb-Zn style mineralisation in the Georgina Basin. The known Georgina Basin’s phosphate deposits are within the basin’s aquifers, providing groundwater near deposits greater exposure and opportunity for water-rock interactions with mineralised geology, resulting in trace element and isotope signatures of mineralisation at detectable levels. These tracers can then be applied elsewhere in the basin as a screening tool for detecting mineralisation. To achieve this, we collected rock geochemistry from the MinEx CRC East Tennant National Drilling Initiative Campaign (ME-ET) drillcore, and integrated it with nearby hydrogeochemistry (from the Northern Australia Hydrogeochemical Survey (NAHS)). </div><div><br></div><div>The NAHS was collected by Geoscience Australia as part of EFTF, which included 170 samples from Georgina Basin aquifers. This hydrogeochemistry dataset is high quality, due to robust sampling, QA/QC procedures and a comprehensive analysis suite, making it a useful tool for mineral exploration in the Georgina Basin. The ME-ET drilled 10 stratigraphic holes east of Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, in support of Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program (EFTF). Seventy six Georgina Basin rock samples were collected for whole rock geochemistry and a subset for Pb and Sr isotopes. Samples were selected to target: 1) background unmineralised lithostratigraphy, 2) intervals with groundwater intersections, and 3) transects through zones with anomalous concentrations of P, Pb, Zn and Cu, as identified by portable XRF analysis. </div><div><br></div><div>Initial exploratory data analysis of the hydrogeochemistry is conducted at various scales using principle component analysis and clustering approaches to identify the key attributes (major and trace elements, isotopes, hydrogeology etc.) that are associated with higher P content in the groundwater. These relationships are tested by comparing groundwater samples proximal (in depth and spatially) to high P compositions in the host rock, providing insight into the water-rock interactions taking place. Additionally, vertical whole rock geochemistry transects within the drill-holes are investigated to evaluate the trace element and/or isotopic features that are diagnostic of the enriched phosphate zones. We take the robust geochemical relationships identified from both approaches and apply them as tracers across the NAHS to flag areas of potential undiscovered mineralisation. As we will demonstrate, the NAHS can detect subtle or diluted mineralisation signatures, and underpins a revised understanding of phosphate mineral prospectivity in the Georgina Basin.</div>
Abstract submitted and presented at 2023 Australian Earth Science Convention (AESC), Perth WA ( https://2023.aegc.com.au/)
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2023-01-20T07:00:00
- Date (Publication)
- 2023-08-04T05:01:19
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/147647
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Author Schroder, I.
Internal Contact Author de Caritat, P.
Internal Contact
- Name
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Australian Earth Science Convention (AESC) 27-30 July 2023 Perth WA
- Purpose
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Abstract for an oral presentation at the Australian Earth Science Convention 2023
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Schroder, I.
Internal Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Not planned
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
- Project
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EFTF – Exploring for the Future
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- Project
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NAHS - Northern Australia Hydrogeochemical Survey
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- Keywords
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hydrogeochemistry
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- Keywords
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isotopes
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- Keywords
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Whole rock
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- Keywords
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Geochemistry
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- Keywords
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phosphate
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- Keywords
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mineralisation
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- Keywords
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tracer
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- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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Exploration Geochemistry
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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
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4.0
- Addressee
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details User Any
- Use constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
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© Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2023
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Classification system
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Australian Government Security Classification System
- 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 facsimile
- OnLine resource
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Link to Conference Page
Link to Conference Page
- Distribution format
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- OnLine resource
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Download Presentation (pdf) [3.4 MB]
Download Presentation (pdf) [3.4 MB]
- Distribution format
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pptx
- File decompression technique
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nil
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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<div>This abstract is derived from the Northern Australia Hydrogeochemical Survey http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2020.015. Whole rock geochemistry has been collected as part of the project and will be released later in 2023</div>
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/fd3adeed-189f-40d0-8b31-a1c44d6eaef2
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Schroder, I.
Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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Conference Abstract
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/147647
- Date info (Creation)
- 2023-08-04T04:43:57
- Date info (Revision)
- 2023-08-04T04:43:57
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
- http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551