Archean mafic-ultramafic magmatism in Australia: new map promotes mineral prospectivity

This address was presented at the 2009 Australian Nickel Conference held in Perth, 14-15th October 2009.Geoscience Australia has recently released two web-based map sheets (at: http://www.ga.gov.au/resources/maps/minerals/index.jsp) that show the continental extent and age relationships of Archean mafic and ultramafic rocks and associated mineral deposits throughout Australia. The maps were produced in close collaboration with the State and Northern Territory geological surveys. The Archean eon (~4000 million years to 2500 million years) represents an early part of Earth's history that is noteworthy for the earliest forms of life and the widespread occurrence of unusual olivine-rich ultramafic rocks called komatiites which contain world-class deposits of nickel sulphides. The major objective of this presentation is to promote the applications of the National map, which should be of interest to those explorers searching for nickel, platinum-group elements (PGEs), chromium, titanium, and vanadium. The new map sheets, when used in association with the `Australian Proterozoic Mafic-Ultramafic Magmatic Events' map published in 2008 (GeoCat 66114; GA Record 2008/15), summarise the temporal and spatial evolution of Precambrian mafic-ultramafic magmatism in Australia. These maps provide a national framework for investigating under-explored and potentially mineralised environments, and assessing the role of mafic-ultramafic magmatism in the development of the Australian continent.

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