Post on 05-Dec-2021
transcript
John Miller Deputy Director, Centre for Exploration Targeting,
University of Western Australia
CET Corporate Member’s Day, 9 December 2013
UNCOVER: Finding the next generation of Australian
mineral deposits
What is the Challenge? • Corporate growth in resource companies has
dominantly been driven by M&A rather than new discoveries that truly add value
• Reserve depletion outstrips replenishment – Replenishment efforts focused on near mine and
brownfields exploration, which has finite potential and can in some cases actually destroy value
– Has not yet been a significant increase in true greenfields exploration expenditure
So there is motivation and a market for more effective targeting methods and tools, and more effective detection technologies
Exploration Success Out-Performs – ASX Example
Arvidson 2013
ALLAN TRENCH
LEADER OF CET PROGRESSIVE
RISK AND VALUE
ANALYSIS
THEME
Marginal deposits will not fill the gap
Commodity Price
Production cost
Pre-boom, subeconomic
Early boom, economic
Late boom, marginal
Crash, very subeconomic
Time
$
McCuaig, March 2009
Need high quality deposits
~80% of landmass (7.5M km2) under cover
Both challenge and opportunity!
Major defined as >1Moz Au, >1Mt Cu, >100Kt Ni or equiv.
Excludes bulk commodities Bauxite,
Coal, Iron Ore
Australia’s cover challenge
www.im4dc.org
www.science.org.au/policy/documents/uncover-report.pdf Endorsement by federal government, government surveys,
CSIRO, major geoscience research groups nation-wide
Collaborative Network Independent Strategic Vision
A Vision for Exploration Geoscience
Launched August 2012 by the Minister for Resources & Energy, Martin Ferguson MP The project arose from the Academy’s 2010 Theo Murphy High Flyers Think Tank, Searching the deep earth: the future of Australian resource discovery and utilisation.
A Vision for Exploration Geoscience
“Geoscience research communities should see the vision as a catalyst to collaboration.” “State and federal agencies should see this as a scientific basis to inform a vision for the future of Australia’s mineral resources sector.”
propose a new exploration geoscience researcher network and four important initiatives focused on the genesis, distribution and discovery of the nation’s mineral wealth.
A Vision for Exploration Geoscience
• Exploration geoscience research network • Characterising Australia’s cover - new knowledge to confidently explore
beneath it • Investigating Australia’s lithospheric architecture - a whole lithosphere
architectural framework for mineral systems exploration • Resolving the 4D geodynamic and metallogenic evolution of Australia -
understanding ore deposit origins for better prediction • Characterising and detecting the distal footprints of ore deposits -
towards a toolkit for minerals exploration
This proposes an exploration geoscience researcher network and four important initiatives;
Focused on the genesis, distribution and discovery of the nation’s mineral wealth
Need to predict location at global to regional scale To refine search space “Are we in the right area?” Can be done within a mineral systems framework.
Need to be able to detect deposit 1) Outcropping deposit 2) Sub-cropping and/or surface
anomalism-ground water 3) Under cover or “blind”
Different detection methods e.g. gossan, soil anomalies, geophysical anomalies
Mineral System
Mineral System “model”
Research into different components (Talk by Thébaud)
Deposit
Regional
Global
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Andamooka Limesto ne
CAMBRIAN
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Surface EW
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Widdup et al., 2004
Olympic Dam >200m cover
Pilbara Craton
Yilgarn Craton
Musgraves
Craton margins
Tier 1 NiS deposits
Granitoid NdTM after Cassidy and Champion 2007 Yilgarn Au after Robert et al. (2005)
Cratonic architecture – a whole lithospheric approach, can target key conduits
Nova
Tropicana (soil anomaly)
Nova NiS deposit
Tropicana Au
www.im4dc.org
The Role of Pre-competitive Geodata
REGIONAL GEOLOGICAL
MAPPING
MINERAL RESOURCES ASSESSMENT
REGIONAL EXPLORATION
10
100
1,000,000
>10,000,000
100,000
USD/km2
DETAILED EXPLORATION
MINE DEVELOPMENT
PUBLIC FUNDING
PRIVATE FUNDING
• Help as incentive for exploration investment • Cost function of the quality and type of data • Long run pay-offs deter some governments
Source: World Bank
www.im4dc.org
13/08/05 Sirius Resources Diggers and Dealers Presentation
Background to image is a GSWA precompetitive data set
High quality regional data sets also exist in other parts of the world…….aim to discover deposits in Australia
14 © – Not for duplication or circulation without permission
Integrated West African Exploration GIS Online and disk-based access Coverage at following scales:
˃Country ˃West Africa ˃ Africa ˃ Global ˃Marine
5 Themes: ˃ Geography ˃ Geology ˃ Geophysics ˃ Mineralisation ˃ (Tectonics)
Online WAXI GIS 240 layers (65 at end WAXI I
80 layers unique to WAXI 300 Gb
Integrated import into ArcMap and MapInfo
15 of 22
Regional Gravity data West Africa
http://bgi.obs-mip.fr/en/data-products Bouguer Radiometrics
RTP 1VD
Major field mapping programs to constrain interpretation of potential field data
Metelka et al., (2011) Baratoux et al., (2011)
SE Burkina Faso
Kalana
100 km 100 km
WA
XI S
truct
ural
Geo
phys
ics
Man
ual 2
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3/16
Kalana Termite hill geochemistry
http://www.infomine.com/index/pr/pb296992.pdf
Extensive coverage of similar data sets across west Africa = getting harder to make a first pass, near surface discovery using “tried and tested” empirical methods Current state of play: need to balance technical risk of exploring under cover in “older” mature terranes versus targeting shallower ore bodies in “newer” areas of the developing world (with country risk/ resource nationalism).
Distal Footprints of Giant Ore Systems
>$12M new initiative over Capricorn Orogen
Project Leader Dr Rob Hough
Passive Seismic Array
Better precompetitive data sets integrated with multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research.
Collaboration of Industry, Government and Academia.
2/18 WA
XI S
truct
ural
Geo
phys
ics
Man
ual 2
013
GIS->WEB Ability to do data
integration and delivery
Not all just about generating new high quality pre-competitive data, doing better data integration or more
research into understanding mineral systems. We also need to get smarter about the way we explore and
spend exploration dollars.
Develop tools to assist interpretation
Assist the training of exploration decision making skills
Understand effective data interpretation practice
CET Exploration Simulator
Televiewer Image Analysis (TIAS) Software
Full Tensor Gradient Data Visualisation
Image Enhancement/Blending
Semi-automated Geological Structure Mapping
Downhole Geophysical Data Analysis
Human Data Interaction Analysis
CET Exploration Simulator Researchers: Jason Wong, Eun-Jung Holden, Peter Kovesi, Cam McCuaig, Jon Hronsky, Mark Jessell
Objective. Understand.
Explore.
Interrogate.
Drill.
Success … ?
Target deposit type + budget
Initial low-res (regional) data Conduct geophysical surveys
Interpret + increase understanding
Drill suspected areas
Validate successful discovery
Understanding geoscientific data interpretation practice
– Yathunanthan Sivarajah (PhD Student, CET, UWA) – Supervisors: Eun-Jung Holden, Mike Dentith, External
collaborators: Roberto Togneri (EE, UWA), Greg Price (Psychiatry, UWA),Tele Tan (Eng, Curtin)
Electroence-phalography
(EEG)
Study 2: Identify easy-to-detect target characteristics
Using Eye Tracking System (ETS) & user feedback
Study 1: Learn effective interpretation practice
http://detcrc.com.au/
www.science.org.au/policy/documents/uncover-report.pdf
Endorsement by federal government, government surveys, CSIRO, major geoscience research groups nation-wide
A Vision for Exploration Geoscience