This web map service provides visualisations of datasets prepared for the Technology Investment Roadmap Data Portal. The service has been developed using various mineral deposit, mine location and industrial plant location datasets sourced from the Australia’s Identified Mineral Resources (2019), produced by Geoscience Australia (http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/1327-1466.2018)

<div>The Proterozoic alkaline and related igneous rocks of Australia is a surface geology compilation of alkaline and related igneous rocks of Proterozoic age in Australia. This dataset is one of five datasets, with compilations for Archean, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic alkaline and related igneous rocks already released.</div><div><br></div><div>Geological units are represented as polygon and point geometries and, are attributed with information that includes, but is not limited to, stratigraphic nomenclature and hierarchy, age, lithology, composition, proportion of alkaline rocks, body morphology, unit expression, emplacement type, presence of mantle xenoliths and diamonds, and primary data source. Source data for the geological unit polygons provided in Data Quality LINEAGE. Geological units are grouped into informal geographic “alkaline provinces”, which are represented as polygon geometries, and attributed with information similar to that provided for the geological units.</div>

<div>Alkaline and related rocks are a relatively rare class of igneous rocks worldwide. Alkaline rocks encompass a wide range of rock types and are mineralogically and geochemically diverse. They are typically though to have been derived by generally small to very small degrees of partial melting of a wide range of mantle compositions. As such these rocks have the potential to convey considerable information on the evolution of the Earth’s mantle (asthenosphere and lithosphere), particularly the role of metasomatism which may have been important in their generation or to which such rocks may themselves have contributed. Such rocks, by their unique compositions and or enriched source protoliths, also have considerable metallogenic potential, e.g., diamonds, Th, U, Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, REEs. It is evident that the geographic occurrences of many of these rock types are also important, and may relate to presence of old cratons, craton margins or major lithospheric breaks. Finally, many alkaline rocks also carry with them mantle xenoliths providing a snapshot of the lithospheric mantle composition at the time of their emplacement.</div><div><br></div><div>Accordingly, although alkaline and related rocks comprise only a volumetrically minor component of the geology of Australia, they are of considerable importance to studies of lithospheric composition, evolution and architecture and to helping constrain the temporal evolution of the lithosphere, as well as more directly to metallogenesis and mineralisation.</div><div><br></div><div>This contribution presents data on the distribution and geology of Australian alkaline and related rocks of Proterozoic age. Proterozoic alkaline and related rocks are primarily restricted to the western two-thirds of the Australia continent, congruent with the distribution of Proterozoic rocks more generally. Proterozoic alkaline rock units are most abundant in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, with minor occurrences in South Australia, and the western regions of Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania.</div><div><br></div><div>The report and accompanying GIS document the distribution, age, lithology, mineralogy and other characteristics of these rocks (e.g., extrusive/intrusive, presence of mantle xenoliths, presence of diamonds), as well as references for data sources and descriptions. The report also reviews the nomenclature of alkaline rocks and classification procedures. GIS metadata are documented in the appendices.&nbsp;</div>

<div>Airborne electromagnetics surveys are at the forefront of addressing the challenge of exploration undercover. They have been essential in the regional mapping programmes to build Australia's resource potential inventory and provide information about the subsurface. In collaboration with state and territory geological surveys, Geoscience Australia (GA) leads a national initiative to acquire AEM data across Australia at 20 km line spacing, as a component of the Australian government Exploring for The Future (EFTF) program. Regional models of subsurface electrical conductivity show new undercover geological features that could host critical mineral deposits and groundwater resources. The models enable us to map potential alteration and structural zones and support environmental and land management studies. Several features observed in the AEM models have also provided insights into possible salt distribution analysed for its hydrogen storage potential. The AusAEM programme is rapidly covering areas with regional AEM transects at a scale never previously attempted. The programme's success leans on the high-resolution, non-invasive nature of the method and its ability to derive subsurface electrical conductivity in three dimensions – made possible by GA's implementation of modern high-performance computing algorithms. The programme is increasingly acquiring more AEM data, processing it, and working towards full national coverage.</div> This Abstract was submitted/presented to the 2023 Australian Exploration Geoscience Conference 13-18 Mar (https://2023.aegc.com.au/)

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

This web map service provides the locations and status, as at 30 June 2020, of Australian operating mines, mines under development, mines on care and maintenance and resource deposits associated with critical minerals. Developing mines are deposits where the project has a positive feasibility study, development has commenced or all approvals have been received. Mines under care and maintenance and resource deposits are based on known resource estimations and may produce critical minerals in the future.

<div>The lookbook accompanies a loan of Australian critical mineral samples provided by Geoscience Australia for display at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC, United States.&nbsp; It contains information about each of the samples, including their provenance, mineral or rock name, and the critical mineral they contain.</div>

This web map service provides visualisations of datasets prepared for the Technology Investment Roadmap Data Portal. The service has been developed using various mineral deposit, mine location and industrial plant location datasets sourced from the Australia’s Identified Mineral Resources (2019), produced by Geoscience Australia (http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/1327-1466.2018)

This web service delivers datasets produced by the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative (CMMI), a collaboration between Geoscience Australia (GA), the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Data in this service includes geochemical analyses of over 7000 samples collected from or near mineral deposits from 60 countries, and mineral prospectivity models for clastic-dominated (Zn, Pb) and Mississippi Valley-type (Zn-Pb) deposits across Canada, the United States, and Australia.

This web service delivers datasets produced by the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative (CMMI), a collaboration between Geoscience Australia (GA), the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Data in this service includes geochemical analyses of over 7000 samples collected from or near mineral deposits from 60 countries, and mineral prospectivity models for clastic-dominated (Zn, Pb) and Mississippi Valley-type (Zn-Pb) deposits across Canada, the United States, and Australia.