The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia Project. Final Data Release: National Dataset and Atlas

<div>The National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) is Australia’s only internally consistent, continental-scale geochemical atlas and dataset. The present report presents additional mineralogical data acquired as part of the Heavy Mineral Map of Australia (HMMA) project on the NGSA samples, covering ~81% of Australia. The HMMA project, a collaborative project between Geoscience Australia and Curtin University underpinned by a pilot project establishing its feasibility, is part of the Australian Government-funded Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program.</div><div>All of the 1315 NGSA bottom catchment outlet sediment samples, taken on average from 60 to 80 cm depth in floodplain landforms, were used in the HMMA project. The samples were dried and sieved to a 75-425 µm grainsize fraction, and the contained heavy minerals (HMs; i.e., those with a specific gravity > 2.9 g/cm3) were separated by dense fluids and mounted on cylindrical epoxy mounts. After polishing and carbon-coating, the mounts were subjected to automated mineralogical analysis on a TESCAN® Integrated Mineral Analyzer (TIMA). Using scanning electron microscopy and backscatter electron imaging integrated with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, the TIMA identified 163 unique phases (including ‘Unclassified”) in the NGSA sample set. The dataset, consisting of over 145 million individual mineral grains, was quality controlled and validated by an expert team. The data released here can be visualised, explored and downloaded using a free online, bespoke mineral network analysis (MNA) tool built on a cloud-based platform. Preliminary analysis suggests that zinc minerals and native elements (e.g., native gold and platinum) may be useful in mineral exploration applications. Detailed interpretations of the HMMA dataset will be provided elsewhere. Accompanying this report are data files of TIMA results, a minerals property file, and an atlas of HM distribution maps. </div><div>It is hoped the comprehensive dataset generated by the HMMA project will be of use to mineral exploration and prospectivity modelling around Australia, as well as have other applications in earth and environmental sciences.</div>

Identification info

Date (Creation): 2023-09-21

Date (Publication): 2023-10-11T00:07:21

Citation identifier: Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/148916

Citation identifier: Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148916

Cited responsible party

Role	Organisation / Individual Name	Details
Publisher	Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)	Voice
Author	de Caritat, P.	Internal Contact
Author	Walker, A.T.	External Contact
Author	Bastrakov, E.	Internal Contact
Author	Main, P.	Internal Contact
Author	McInnes, B.I.A.	External Contact

Name: GA Record

Issue identification: GA Record 2023/42

Purpose: Deliver the complete HMMA dataset and atlas to Stakeholders

Status: Completed

Point of contact

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	Main, P.	MEG Internal Contact

Spatial representation type

Topic category

Geoscientific information

Extent

Maintenance and update frequency: As needed

Resource format

Title: Product data repository: Various Formats

Website: 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

EFTF – Exploring for the Future

Project

EFTF

Project

Australia’s Resources Framework

Project

Keywords

Mineralogy

Keywords

Mineral exploration

Keywords

Precompetitive Data

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf

Resource geoscience
Mineralogy and crystallography

Keywords

Published_External

Resource constraints

Title: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title: CC-BY

Edition: 4.0

Website

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Addressee

Role	Organisation / Individual Name	Details
User	Any

Use constraints: License

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: © Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2023

Resource constraints

Title: Australian Government Security Classification System

Edition date: 2018-11-01T00:00:00

Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification: Unclassified

Classification system: Australian Government Security Classification System

Associated resource

Association Type: Had derivation

Title: National Geochemical Survey of Australia: The Geochemical Atlas of Australia

Citation identifier: 71973

Citation identifier: a4a1ac2e-0a2c-653b-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Website

http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/71973

Link to eCat metadata record landing page

Associated resource

Association Type: Was informed by

Title: The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia Project -- Data Release 1: The Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian Region

Citation identifier: 146921

Citation identifier: a9449585-1eac-4dac-8cb7-7893fb8f0a26

Website

http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/146921

Link to eCat metadata record landing page

Associated resource

Association Type: Was informed by

Title: The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia Project. Data Release 2. The Barkly Isa Georgetown Region

Citation identifier: 147438

Citation identifier: 039def02-31fe-418c-b1df-cf34587d62ba

Website

http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/147438

Link to eCat metadata record landing page

Language: English

Character encoding: UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact

Role	Organisation / Individual Name	Details
Distributor	Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)	Voice facsimile

OnLine resource: Download the Record (pdf) [7.5 MB]

Download the Record (pdf) [7.5 MB]

Distribution format

OnLine resource: Download Appendix A (xlsx) [7.5 MB]

Download Appendix A (xlsx) [7.5 MB]

Distribution format

xlsx

OnLine resource: Download Appendix B (csv) [54.1 KB]

Download Appendix B (csv) [54.1 KB]

Distribution format

OnLine resource: Download Appendix C (csv) [295.9 KB]

Download Appendix C (csv) [295.9 KB]

Distribution format

OnLine resource: Download Appendix D (pdf) [1.0 GB]

Download Appendix D (pdf) [1.0 GB]

Distribution format

OnLine resource: Download the shapefile (zip) [2.5 MB]

Download the shapefile (zip) [2.5 MB]

Distribution format

zip

File decompression technique

unzip

OnLine resource: Download the geodatabase (zip) [3.0 MB]

Download the geodatabase (zip) [3.0 MB]

Distribution format

zip

File decompression technique

unzip

OnLine resource: Link to Mineral Network Analysis (MNA) tool for HMMA

Link to Mineral Network Analysis (MNA) tool for HMMA

Distribution format

OnLine resource: Link to Heavy Mineral Map of Australia in Geoscience Australia Portal

Link to Heavy Mineral Map of Australia in Geoscience Australia Portal

Distribution format

Resource lineage

Statement: <div>National Geochemical Survey of Australia: The Geochemical Atlas of Australia http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2011.020</div><div>The National Geochemical Survey of Australia: review and impact https://doi.org/10.1144/geochem2022-032</div><div>The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia: Vision and Pilot Project https://doi.org/10.3390/min12080961</div><div>The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia: vision, implementation and progress https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148678 </div>

Metadata constraints

Title: Australian Government Security Classification System

Edition date: 2018-11-01T00:00:00

Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification: Unclassified

Metadata

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urn:uuid/d1e5401e-5940-4213-8ea5-0e0b96a2a445

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	Main, P.	MEG Internal Contact

Type of resource

Resource scope: Document

Name: GA Record

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier: eCatId/148916

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/d1e5401e-5940-4213-8ea5-0e0b96a2a445

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/js/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/d1e5401e-5940-4213-8ea5-0e0b96a2a445

Date info (Creation): 2023-10-10T02:41:04

Date info (Revision): 2023-10-10T02:41:04

Metadata standard

Title: AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title: ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title: ISO 19115-3

Title: Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition: Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier: http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

Spatial extent

Provided by

Access to the portal

Read here the full details and access to the data.

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Not available

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