Completed 2024 Mineral Potential Mapping
Mineral systems describe all the physical and chemical processes that are necessary for a mineral deposit to form. Our understanding of Australia's mineral potential is based on many different types of geoscience data that are used to map these processes, combined with decades of mineral systems expertise. Mineral potential mapping brings this data and expertise together to predict which areas of Australia have higher potential for different mineral systems to occur.
The aim of the mineral potential mapping study was to better understand key mineral systems in Australia and predictively map their potential. This narrows the search space and reduces the risk of exploration for industry. This is particularly important in unexplored or underexplored regions of Australia, including in areas covered by thick layers of regolith. It also supports the search for resources such as copper, zinc, and rare earth elements, which are critical for Australia's transition to net zero.
As part of the Exploring for the Future program, mineral potential maps were produced for a range of mineral systems, including:
These maps provide a guide for mineral explorers on the most prospective parts of Australia and support exploration for commodities, including critical minerals.
Mineral potential for clastic dominated siliciclastic carbonate (CDSC) zinc-lead mineral systems in Australia
The national mineral potential mapping study aimed to:
As part of the mineral potential mapping study we compiled a wide variety of multidisciplinary geoscience data, including geology, geophysics, and geochemistry. We compared these data to known mineral deposits to help us better understand the complex processes involved in their formation. We can then use this understanding to predict where similar types of mineral deposits might form.
As well as providing new information on which datasets are the most informative for predicting mineralisation, study results provide a guide for mineral explorers on the most prospective parts of Australia for different mineral systems. This supports exploration for new resources such as copper, zinc, and rare earth elements, which are critical for Australia's transition to net zero.
In addition to the national-scale mineral potential assessments, regional-scale assessments were undertaken as part of deep dive projects within the Exploring for the Future program. These assessments can integrate more detailed and higher resolution datasets than at the national-scale and provide new insights into regional-scale processes that lead to the formation of mineral systems.
All data produced by Geoscience Australia, including the data from this study, is publicly available through the Exploring for the Future Data Discovery Portal after quality assurance has been performed.
This project laid the foundations for a national view of Australia's surface and subsurface geology, underpinning our understanding of the continent's mineral, energy and groundwater potential.
The Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative (CMMI) persona is a free interactive mapping tool designed to share outputs from the geoscientific collaboration between Geoscience Australia, the Geological Survey of Canada and the United States Geological Survey.
Cloutier, J., Ford, A., Huston, D., Doublier, M., Schofield, A., Waltenberg, K., de Caritat, P., Fraser, G., Beyer, E., Bastrakov, E., Czarnota, K. (2023)
