Legacy product - no abstract available

Extended review of mineralexploration in Australia in 2010.

The Archean Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia, is not only one of the largest extant fragments of Archean crust in the world, but is also one of the most richly-mineralised regions in the world. Understanding the evolution of the craton is important, therefore, for constraining Archean geodynamics, and the influence of such on Archean mineral systems. The Yilgarn Craton is dominated by felsic intrusive rocks - over 70% of the rock types. As such these rocks hold a significant part of the key to understanding the four-dimensional evolution of the craton, providing constraints on the nature and timing of crustal growth, the role of the mantle, and also the timing of important switches in crustal growth geodynamics. The granites also provide constraints on the nature and age of the crustal domains within the craton. Importantly, this crustal pre-history appears to have exerted a significant, but poorly understood, spatial control on the distribution of mineral systems, such as gold, komatiite-associated nickel sulphide and volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) base metal systems

Legacy product - no abstract available

Australia's Identified Mineral Resources is an annual nation-wide assessment of Australia's ore reserves and mineral resources.

Australia's Identified Mineral Resources is an annual nation-wide assessment of Australia's ore reserves and mineral resources.

Australia's Identified Mineral Resources is an annual nation-wide assessment of Australia's ore reserves and mineral resources.

Australia's Identified Mineral Resources is an annual nation-wide assessment of Australia's ore reserves and mineral resources.

Australia's Identified Mineral Resources is an annual nation-wide assessment of Australia's ore reserves and mineral resources.

Australia's Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) span most of Earth's geological history, ranging from Early Archean to Recent. LIPs in continental Australia are represented by continental flood basalts, fragments of oceanic plateaux, layered mafic-ultramafic intrusions, sill complexes and dyke swarms. It is only in the last decade that geologists have started to focus on LIPs in Australia, mainly from the perspective of their mineral potential, particularly after the discovery of the Nebo-Babel Ni-Cu-PGE deposit in the West Musgrave Province, central Australia. The list of LIPs increased by including other well-known igneous provinces, such as the Fortescue, Warakurna, Hart-Carson, Kalkarindji (formerly known as Antrim Plateau Volcanics) and various dyke swarms (e.g., Widgiemooltha, Marnda Moorn, Gairdner). The Bunbury Basalt, although only covering a small area in the Cape Naturaliste-Cape Leeuwin peninsula, joined the list of LIPs, due to its age links with the huge Kerguelen oceanic plateau magmatism. As indicated by the world-class Nebo-Babel deposit and further discoveries in the West Musgrave and in the Kimberley region, the mineral potential of LIPs is very high. In the case of orthomagmatic mineral systems, the selection of areas or specific intrusions requires focusing on isotope systematics and trace- and major-element geochemical trends to filter out mafic-ultramafic intrusions that may not have undergone sulphur saturation from those that have experienced sulphur saturation from processes, such as crustal contamination. In eastern Australia, there are two major volcanic provinces: the Early Cretaceous Whitsunday volcanic province, which is a good example of a silicic LIP, and a 4400 km long belt characterised by recent (youngest volcano is 4600 years ago) intraplate alkaline volcanism. The mineral potential associated with these provinces is as yet not fully assessed.