Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King this morning announced the release of new data and four new Mineral Potential Maps as part of the $225m Exploring for the Future program.
The announcement comes as part of the Australian Government’s moves to meet the increasing global demand for critical minerals for use in renewable technologies.
Minister King says the information, developed by Geoscience Australia and with support from the Geological Survey of WA, is important to ensure the nation is well-positioned to take advantage of a booming worldwide clean-energy market.
“Thanks to years of hard work and geological research by Australian scientists, we are now able to better predict the location of resources, including critical minerals, that will be essential for the world to meet its net-zero emissions targets,” Minister King said.
“The newly released maps – along with reports and other useful data – build on the success of Geoscience Australia’s 2016 Mineral Potential Mapper project. This project was the catalyst for the discovery in 2020 of Chalice Mining’s Gonneville deposit in Julimar, Western Australia, the world’s largest nickel sulphide discovery in more than 20 years and the largest platinum group elements discovery in Australian history.
“The mineral potential mapping approach integrates decades of Geoscience Australia’s expertise with a wide range of geoscientific datasets to transform big data into predictive power, raising the prospect of more exciting discoveries.”
“It is my hope that any future discoveries will continue to help not only nearby regional communities, but the whole country.
“Gaining a better understanding of our geology is key to the sustainable development of our resources and is integral to Australia’s- and the world’s transition to net zero emissions by 2050.”
With about 80% of the Australian continent remaining unexplored, the Exploring for the Future program has been gathering precompetitive data about Australia’s geology since 2016 to better predict the location of natural resources.
Find the national mineral potential for sentiment-hosted zinc-lead mineral systems in Australia here.
Find the sediment-hosted base metal mineral potential maps here.
