Experimental constraints on Platinum-Group Element geochemistry: developing lithogeochemical exploration tools for nickel-sulfides in mafic and ultramafic systems. Nickel contributes approximately $2 billion per year to Australia's export income. Currently 80% of that is coming from sulfide deposits, which are expected to be exhausted within thirty years barring significant new discoveries. Discovery rates have been declining for two decades, as the 'easy' targets have been found, despite a broa ....Experimental constraints on Platinum-Group Element geochemistry: developing lithogeochemical exploration tools for nickel-sulfides in mafic and ultramafic systems. Nickel contributes approximately $2 billion per year to Australia's export income. Currently 80% of that is coming from sulfide deposits, which are expected to be exhausted within thirty years barring significant new discoveries. Discovery rates have been declining for two decades, as the 'easy' targets have been found, despite a broad increase in nickel exploration expenditure to current levels of around $50 million per year. There is a pressing need for new data sets and techniques to allow industry to target new discoveries based on limited drill sampling of potential host rocks. This project forms part of a broader program to harness the igneous geochemistry of the platinum group elements as a powerful pathfinder in nickel exploration.Read moreRead less
Advancing diamond exploration - novel techniques for the interpretation of indicator minerals. Diamond production is an important industry in Australia, with a total export value in 2004-05 of $650 million. Most of this production comes from the Argyle Mine in Western Australia, which may be nearing the end of its productivity. Therefore, there is a need to reinvigorate exploration for diamond in Australia, in order for new and significant deposits to be discovered. The outcomes of this proposal ....Advancing diamond exploration - novel techniques for the interpretation of indicator minerals. Diamond production is an important industry in Australia, with a total export value in 2004-05 of $650 million. Most of this production comes from the Argyle Mine in Western Australia, which may be nearing the end of its productivity. Therefore, there is a need to reinvigorate exploration for diamond in Australia, in order for new and significant deposits to be discovered. The outcomes of this proposal will provide diamond exploration companies with improved mineralogical tools to assess the likely diamond grade of parts of the lithosphere sampled by kimberlite or lamproite magmas, thus better directing exploration strategies.Read moreRead less
Transitions and Zoning in Porphyry-Epithermal Districts: Indicators, Discriminators, and Vectors. We aim to improve understanding of ore genesis and exploration success in porphyry-epithermal mineral districts. These districts can contain porphyry Cu-Mo-Au deposits (the world's major source of copper), epithermal Au-Ag deposits, skarn and sediment-hosted gold deposits. These districts continue to be important targets for copper and gold explorers, even though it can be difficult to identify th ....Transitions and Zoning in Porphyry-Epithermal Districts: Indicators, Discriminators, and Vectors. We aim to improve understanding of ore genesis and exploration success in porphyry-epithermal mineral districts. These districts can contain porphyry Cu-Mo-Au deposits (the world's major source of copper), epithermal Au-Ag deposits, skarn and sediment-hosted gold deposits. These districts continue to be important targets for copper and gold explorers, even though it can be difficult to identify the ore zones within large zones of background alteration. We will develop and test criteria that can be used by explorers to indicate prospective environments, discriminate between mineralization styles, and vector towards ore zones - be they of porphyry, epithermal, and/or other peripheral styles.Read moreRead less
Mobility of metals in hydrothermal solutions: critical experiments and numerical modelling tools to improve exploration success and ore processing. After more than 100 years of intense prospecting, ore deposits with a surface expression or a characteristic geophysical signature have been discovered. As a result, the industry needs innovative and quantitative exploration techniques. Geochemical exploration suffers from a growing gap between ever more powerful geochemical analytical capabilities a ....Mobility of metals in hydrothermal solutions: critical experiments and numerical modelling tools to improve exploration success and ore processing. After more than 100 years of intense prospecting, ore deposits with a surface expression or a characteristic geophysical signature have been discovered. As a result, the industry needs innovative and quantitative exploration techniques. Geochemical exploration suffers from a growing gap between ever more powerful geochemical analytical capabilities and the poor understanding of fundamental processes in hydrothermal systems. By combining new experiments on important geochemical systems (association between the trace elements Te and As with Au) with advances in numerical modelling of H2O-CO2-NaCl fluids, the project aims to bring geochemical exploration in line with geophysical exploration.Read moreRead less
Developing indicator minerals to geochemically fingerprint mineralized Fe oxide Cu-Au systems: a pilot study around the Ernest Henry Cu-Au mine. Fe oxide Cu-Au deposits represent some of the largest accumulations of economically extractable metal in the earth's crust. However, exploration has been largely ineffective over the last decade, and new methods for their delineation are required to deliver a step-change in the efficiency of exploration programs. The development of a mineral indicator s ....Developing indicator minerals to geochemically fingerprint mineralized Fe oxide Cu-Au systems: a pilot study around the Ernest Henry Cu-Au mine. Fe oxide Cu-Au deposits represent some of the largest accumulations of economically extractable metal in the earth's crust. However, exploration has been largely ineffective over the last decade, and new methods for their delineation are required to deliver a step-change in the efficiency of exploration programs. The development of a mineral indicator scheme to fingerprint potential ?ore-forming? systems using state-of-the-art laser ablation ICP-MS analysis may engender new methods and strategies that lead to exploration success. A baseline study around a known deposit provides the best means to characterize indicators- the Ernest Henry Cu-Au deposit provides the ideal candidate.Read moreRead less