Adelaide Uni heads up new mineral exploration initiative

The University of Adelaide has successfully attracted $576,000 worth of funding from the Australian Research Council to research the mineral exploration potential of South Australia's Gawler Craton area.

Dr. Martin Hand from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences heads the University of Adelaide team.

They will work in collaboration with research partners from Monash University and Primary Industries and Resources SA, with the latter adding a further $291,000 to the project to bring the total amount to $867,000.

"The group in the Faculty of Sciences will aim to construct a geologic framework for the highly prospective Gawler Craton area. This information will be of use to companies contemplating exploration in the region.

"The framework will be developed using several cutting edge technologies housed in the Faculty of Sciences, including thermal ionisation mass spectrometry, mineral dating using electron microscopy and probing the earth's outer 200 km using electromagnetic waves," says Dr. Karin Barovich, from the Faculty of Sciences.

The Gawler Craton is located north of the Eyre Peninsula and has long been viewed as an area of high mineral exploration potential. The Gawler Craton covers roughly all the area to the west of Port Augusta, north to Mintabie, and to the Western Australian border - an area roughly the size of Germany. The Craton has long been viewed as an area of high mineral exploration potential. It hosts the enormous Olympic Dam copper-gold deposit, discovered in 1975 by WMC Resources.

"Geologists worldwide believe that there is further potential for new deposits to be found within the Craton, but exploration to date has been hindered by the lack of a modern geologic framework," says Dr Barovich.

Professor Richard Hillis, the newly appointed Mawson Chair of Geology and Geophysics at the University and SA Chair of Petroleum Geology, says that "in particular the Craton has created excitement within the nickel, gold and copper mining industries."

Dr Barovich adds that "our work will highlight the mineral exploration potential of South Australia and assist PIRSA in boosting exploration expenditure in SA to $100 million per annum by 2007."

Item provided courtesy of The University of Adelaide