Authors / CoAuthors
Ford, A. | Huston, D. | Cloutier, J. | Schofield, A. | Cheng, Y. | Beyer, E.
Abstract
<div>The production of rare earth elements (REEs) is critical to the global transition to a low carbon economy. Carbonatites represent a significant source of REEs, both domestically within Australia, as well as globally. Given their strategic importance for the Australian economy, a national mineral potential assessment has been undertaken as part of the Exploring for the Future program at Geoscience Australia to evaluate the potential for carbonatite-related REE (CREE) mineral systems. Rather than aiming to identify individual carbonatites and/or CREE deposits, the focus of the mineral potential assessment is to delineate prospective belts or districts within Australia that indicate the presence of favourable criteria, particularly in terms of lithospheric architecture, that may lead to the formation of a CREE mineral system.</div><div><br></div><div>This study demonstrates how national-scale multidisciplinary precompetitive geoscience datasets can be integrated using a hybrid methodology that incorporates robust statistical analysis with mineral systems expertise to predictively map areas that have a higher geological potential for the formation of CREE mineral systems and effectively reduce the exploration search space. Statistical evaluation of the relationship between different mappable criteria that represent spatial proxies for mineral system processes and known carbonatites and CREE deposits has been undertaken to test previously published hypotheses on how to target CREE mineral systems at a broad-scale. The results confirm the relevance of most criteria in the Australian context, while several new criteria such as distance to large igneous province margins and distance to magnetic worms have also been shown to have a strong correlation with known carbonatites and CREE deposits. Using a hybrid knowledge- and data-driven mineral potential mapping approach, the mineral potential map predicts the location of known carbonatite and CREE deposits, while also demonstrating additional areas of high prospectivity in regions with no previously identified carbonatites or CREE mineralisation.</div> Presented at the AusIMM Critical Minerals Conference 2023.
Product Type
document
eCat Id
147798
Contact for the resource
Resource provider
Point of contact
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Point of contact
Keywords
- ( Project )
-
- EFTF – Exploring for the Future
- ( Project )
-
- Australia’s Resources Framework
-
- Mineral potential
-
- carbonatites
-
- rare earth elements
-
- critical minerals
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
-
- Resource geoscienceData mining and knowledge discovery
-
- Published_External
Publication Date
2024-01-31T03:59:58
Creation Date
2023-05-02T16:00:00
Security Constraints
Legal Constraints
Status
completed
Purpose
Short abstract for AusIMM Critical Minerals Conference 2023
Maintenance Information
notPlanned
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
AusIMM Critical Minerals Conference 21-23 November 2023, Brisbane, Qld
Lineage
<div>Multiple national-scale geological and geophysical datasets were used as the basis for generating novel mappable criteria for distinct mineral system components. These have been integrated into a a series of coherent products to assess mineral prospectivity.</div>
Parent Information
Extents
[-44.00, -9.00, 112.00, 154.00]
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
Service Information
Associations
Source Information