GSQ-UQ Webinar Series
In early 2020, in response to travel restrictions, the Geological Survey of Queensland and UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute inaugaurated a webinar series to continue to support Queensland's explorers.
The main goal of the series is to find new ways to support the minerals industry in Queensland.
With most explorers working remotely or internationally, there is great opportunity to think about new techniques that can can be applied, and introduce to the exploration community something that will help to define new and exciting targets that can be tested in the field.
Explore past webinars below.
2024 webinars
Digging Digital: Unlocking GSQ's Geoscience Data Riches | 29 February 2024
Delve into the depths of the Geological Survey of Queensland's Geoscience Data Portal. This webinar is an opportunity to explore its advanced search functionalities, learn about utilising the CKAN API, and discover the potential of OCR text data extraction.
Watch the Digging Digital webinar
ESG and The Circular Economy | 28 March 2024
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are important considerations in exploration and mining activities. Equally, the Circular Economy in Mining continues to gain momentum. With the growing focus on ESG and Circular Economy, this webinar will showcase a series of expert presentations from industry, academia and government.
2023 webinars
Geochronology in Mineral Discovery | 23 February 2023
Often, the most basic knowledge required for resource exploration is the age of rocks in a given area, regardless of whether the resource is mineral, petroleum or geothermal. This webinar discusses how Queensland rocks are related and what geological events they may have been a part of.
Women leading exploration 2
Recognising the strong and invaluable contribution by women in the resources sector. Hear from ground-breaking female leaders in mining and exploration as they share their stories, experiences and challenges for the future.
Future risks in mining and exploration
Now more than ever before, there seem to be far greater risks for the mining and exploration industry, and we all have a role to play in mitigating them. Or do we? Listen to this series of interesting and thought-provoking presentations that highlight the key exploration risks and opportunities for 2023 and beyond.
Al about the Toolebuc
The Toolebuc Formation, exposed in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory, was deposited in a shallow sea about 100 Ma and is the richest known source of Vanadium in Queensland, as well as hosting some great fossils. This webinar helps unpack the Toolebuc’s history, critical mineral potential and so much more.
2022 webinars
Circular Economy in Mining | 31 March, 2022
The circular economy is becoming increasingly important to society and the environment. With more and more focus on how these principles apply to the resources sector, this webinar comprised a series of presentations from industry, academic and government experts in the field.
Presentations
- Regeneration Enterprises – Stephen D'Esposito, President and CEO of RESOLVE
- Metals without Mining – Ian Hodkinson, EnviroGold Global Limited and Blake Stacey, Director of Real Materials Solutions and Business Development Manager of LabWest Minerals Analysis
- Ore-sand: A circular economy solution to the mine tailings and sustainability crises - Professor Daniel Franks, Program Leader of Development Minerals, Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Re-use of Tailings and Mine Waste – Professor Longbin Huang, Group Leader – Ecological Engineering of Mine Wastes (Soil-Plant Systems), Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Tailings to Building Blocks and Circular Economy Issues - Blake Stacey, Director of Real Materials Solutions and Business Development Manager of LabWest Minerals Analysis and Nic Matich, Chief Executive Officer Heavy Minerals Ltd
- Extraction of Tungsten with XRT sorting from historic mine waste material resulting in beneficial re-use into quarry materials – Kevin MacNeill, Chief Executive Officer of EQ Resources Limited
- Government's Role in Circular Economy and ESG – Carlye Sycz, Executive Director, Reform at Department of Resources (Queensland) and Khalil Lloyd, Manager Georesources Policy at Department of Resources (Queensland)
- Applying Circular Principles to Mine Waste Valorisation – Loren Nicholls, Sustainable Minerals Institute, WH Bryan Mining Geology Research Centre (BRC)
Tool Time 2| 28 April, 2022
After the very popular Tool Time session last year, it was decided that Tool Time 2 was a necessity! This session showed the latest in coding and software tools to make exploration, interpretation and data manipulation faster, simpler and more integrated.
Presentations/Timestamps
- Tool Time 2 introduction – Helen Degeling, GSQ
- Using the Geoscience plugin to generate cross sections – John Bryant, Mammoth Geospatial
- Simulating and inverting geophysical data with SimPEG – Lindsey Heagy, simpeg
- Improving search with GeoClerk – Tim Hall-Johnston, GeoClerk
- Accessing data from the GSQ Open Data Portal using API – Kate Wathen-Dunn, GSQ
- Showcasing how open file data can be used in Python – Michael Rodda, Caldera Analytics
- Streamlit – From Python code to Applications – David Armstrong, GSQ
- Trans-dimensional Monte Carlo code for 1D inversion of audio-frequency magnetotelluric data – Winping Jiang, Geoscience Australia
- Geo-registered Xarrays with ‘odc-stac’ and ‘odc-geo’ in Python – Kirill Kousoubov, Open Data Cube
- Raster processing and geological mapping with ASTER – Vincent Dinh, GIS Pro
- Q&A
Global Friends in Geoscience| 26 May, 2022
Geoscience is all about collaboration! This webinar featured the latest from geoscience organisations around the world, including North and South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and more.
Presentations/Timestamps
- Global Friends in Geoscience webinar introduction – Helen Degeling
- Critical Minerals in New Zealand – Current State of Understanding and Work in Progress – Rose Turnbull, GNS New Zealand
- JOGMEC's Activities and Cobalt Recovery Research in Queensland – Taro Kamiya, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC)
- From Mineral Database to Exploration Target – Pak Hilman, Geological Agency Indonesia
- OneGeochemistry: Collaborating Globally to Create a FAIR-way to Find and Access Geochemical Data Online – Lesley Wyborn, Australian National University
- Assessments of the Physical Requirements and Minerals to Globally Phase Out Fossil Fuels – Simon Michaux, Geological Survey of Finland
- The Role of the Geological Survey of Norway, What We Do and the Mineral Potential of Norway – Kari Aslaksen Aasly, Geological Survey of Norway
- Mine Waste Management at the Geological Survey of Sweden – Roger Hamburg, Geological Survey of Sweden
- Overview of the Tri-National Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative (CMMI) – Garth Graham, United States Geological Survey
- *Garth's presentation is pre-recorded. Questions for Garth are answered by David Huston from Geoscience Australia, who works collaboratively with Garth.
Collaborative Exploration Initiative – Round 5 | 28 July, 2022
The Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI) is a mainstay in the mineral exploration calendar. Don’t miss out on these talks from innovative and adventurous explorers in Queensland, as they give us the latest results from Round 5 of CEI.
Presentations/Timestamps
- CEI Round 5 webinar introduction – Helen Degeling, Director of Minerals Geoscience at the Geological Survey of Queensland
- Hyperspectral Survey in the North West Mineral Province – Courtney Taylor, Exploration Manager at Aeris Resources
- Critical Minerals Survey through Mt Cobalt Corridor, Mt Isa – Simon Beams, Managing Director and Principal Geologist at Terra Search
- CEI Update – Rounds 5, 6 & 7 – Heather Sparks, Manager of Grants and Engagement at the Geological Survey of Queensland
- Strategic Energy Resources: General Update – Neil Chalmers, Exploration Manager at Strategic Energy Resources
- CEI Update: Seventy Mile Mount Prospect Area – David A-Izzeddin, Technical Director at Ballymore Resources
- Q&A
Advances in Remote Sensing | 25 August, 2022
Remote Sensing tools are vital for mineral exploration, giving us a unique perspective on the Earth’s properties from afar. The technologies are always evolving and advancing, so register now to hear about the latest developments in orbital data and new satellites.
Presentation/timestamps
- Introduction – Rick Valenta, The University of Queensland Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Efficient exploration for critical metals using hyperspectral and multispectral spaceborne imagery – Carsten Laukamp, CSIRO
- Remote sensing supporting mineral exploration – Greg Madden, Geoimage
- Hyperspectral remote sensing by drone and other fun stuff – Steve Mickelthwaite and Katerina Savinova, The University of Queensland Sustainable Minerals Institute
- 20 years of HyMap in Queensland – Lee Robson, HyVista
- PlotLogic – Multiplatform remote sensing for ore characterisation – Andrew Job, PlotLogic
- Envirometrics.io – From transects to satellites, turning research into a venture capital-backed start-up for environmental management in mining – Roger Tang, Envirometrics
- GEMS (GeoResources Early Monitoring System) – David Limburg, Queensland Government Department of Resources
- Imagery, elevation and depth – Andy Stewart, Queensland Government Department of Resources
- Q&A
Cape York Focus Session | 29 September, 2022
The Cape York region has a rich mineral endowment, including gold, bauxite, tungsten and new economy minerals. This session delivers the latest from industry, academia and government on this exciting and under-explored region.
Presentations/Timestamps
- Introduction – Rick Valenta and Katerina Savinova, The University of Queensland Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Carboniferous and Permian intrusion-related and epithermal gold mineral systems in Cape York – Courteney Dhnaram, GSQ
- Exploration Opportunities for Base Metals in the Cape York Peninsula – Luke Pickering, South32
- Unlocking an Entire Gold Corridor – Alice River Project – Geoff Lowe, PacGold
- Geology of the Coen Inlier – Dominic Brown, GSQ
- FNQ Delivering Critical High Purity silica – Peter Brown , Diatreme Resources
- Integrated chemical and mineralogical characterisation at Horn Island, Qld: Opportunities for valorisation of gold mine waste – Laura Jackson, The University of Queensland Sustainable Minerals Institute
Industry Innovation | 27 October, 2022
Queensland mineral explorers are amongst Australia’s most innovative. In this webinar, we turned the spotlight on exciting industry players to hear about a range of projects and discoveries.
Presentations/Timestamps
- Introduction – Helen Degeling, GSQ
- How can space technology revolutionise mineral exploration? – Jose Fernandez, Fleet Space Technologies
- Thinking Differently about Innovation – Jessica Doherty, Oz Minerals
- Incorporating the Expert: Data Science in Exploration and Mining – Tom Carmichael Datarock
- Gap Geophysics Australia: A history of geophysical innovation and new developments – Dan Eremenco, Gap Geophysics Australia
- Using digital assay and digital core logging in the field to reduce costs and accelerate assay turn-around times – Andrew Job, Plotlogic
- Getting the best out of drillcore? – Nick Cook, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Q&A
Women Leading Exploration | 24 November, 2022
Recognising the strong and invaluable contribution by women in the resources sector, the 2022 GSQ-UQ webinar series finished the year with a bang by bringing together a group worth celebrating. We heard from ground-breaking female leaders in resources as they shared their stories, experiences and challenges for the future.
Presentations/Timestamps
- Women Leading Exploration introduction & Housekeeping – Helen Degeling, GSQ
- Humans United with Geology – Jessica Keast, GeoHug
- Innovation in Bauxite Exploration – Niki Spurway, Rio Tinto
- How can Space Technology Revolutionise Mineral Exploration? – Chloe Leclerc, FleetSpace Technologies
- Connection: the overlooked resource – Holly Cooke, Oz Minerals
- Rio Tinto Winu Discovery – Jennifer Maguire, Rio Tinto
- Gold hunting in Victoria: Agnico Eagle’s search for the next Swan – Claudia Bowman, Agnico Eagle Australia
- From data collection to data interpretation: A Field Geologists Perspective – Jessie Mack
2021 webinars
- Jump to
- NW Mineral Province Deposit Haloes
- Major Structures of the NW Mineral Province
- Critical Minerals Collaborations
- Social performance in exploration
- CEI Round 4 Highlights
- Review of Mount Isa Seismic Data and Interpretations
- New economy minerals compilations and atlases
- The new generation of NW Mineral Province PhDs
- Value from tailings and mine waste
- Tool Time – Open Source Geoscientific Software
NW Mineral Province Deposit Haloes | 23 February 2021
In the first webinar of 2021, the GSQ-UQ series hosted 8 presentations focused on detailing the characteristics explorers might look for in halo intersections of major deposits in the Mount Isa region.
Presentations
- Osborne – Deposit Halo – Dr Paul Gow
- Silicate mineral chemistry as an exploration tool at the SWAN Halo IOCG deposit – Jonathan Cloutier
- IOCG Geochemical/Geophysical Haloes – Jim Austin
- Ernest Henry – geochemical signatures and footprints – Vladimir Lisitsin
- Using epidote to track the IOCG scent: Ernest Henry case study – Jeff Steadman
- Lady Loretta: Primary lithogeochecmical dispersion halos to Northern Autralian sediment-hosted Zn-Pb-Ag deposits – Peter McGoldrick
- Hydrothermal footprints at Century: Insights from chemical reaction path modelling – Dr Coralie Siégel
- Mount Isa Halo – Professor Rick Valenta
Major Structures of the NW Mineral Province – 25 March, 2021
This series of webinars pulls together presentations on some of the major structures in the Mount Isa region. What do we know about them, and what are the implications for mineral discovery?
Presentations
- The Cloncurry Lineament: a long lived crustal-scale fault zone and its influence over Metallogenesis in the Eastern Mt Isa Liner – Jim Austin
- 3D inversion of a normal fault – The Fiery Creek Fault – Pete Betts
- Termite Range Fault: a major structure in Western succession of Proterozoic Isa Superbasin – Vladimir David
- Isa Mine Lease Exploration: Paroo Fault and the Basement Structures Lessons from the core yard – Peter Rea
- Pilgrim Fault: Did it fake it ‘til it make it? – Steve Micklethwaite
- Mount Gordon Fault Zone – Damien Keys
- Major structures of the North West Mineral Province: The IOCG Detachment – Gordon Lister
- Major Structure of the North West Mineral Province: Structure of the Lithosphere – Asthenosphere Boundary – Karen Connors
Critical Minerals Collaborations | 29 April, 2021
Canada, the USA and Australia have a joint initiative on Critical Minerals, and this webinar explored aspects of this collaboration.
Presentations
- Introduction to the Critical Minerals collaboration – Helen Degeling
- Mineral systems with IOCG and affiliated Critical Metals Deposits: from field geology and lithogeochemistry to deposit model, then back to the field – Louise Corriveau (NRCan contribution number 20210062)
- An update on critical mineral research at the Geological Survey of Canada – Christopher Lawley
- Critical Minerals in Australia – recent and current research by Geoscience Australia (and partners) – Dave Huston
Social performance in exploration | 27 May, 2021
This webinar topic was on the importance of community engagement in exploration.
Presentations
- Indigenous engagement in Northern Australia – Greg Duncan and Scott Singleton
- Exploring responsibly: bringing the people into prospecting – Sarah MacKenzie and Joel Hamago
- Using data to drive social performance across the mine life cycle – Kieren Moffatt
- Social performance in exploration – Q & A
Collaborative Exploration Initiative Round 4 Highlights | 24 June, 2021
Highlights from companies funded in Round 4 of the Collaborative Exploration Initiative.
Presentations
- Collaborative Exploration Initiative introduction – Helen Degeling
- Fletchers Awl Airborne Geophysical Survey and Interpretation Project – Helen Anderson
- Red River Resources – Orient Dronemag and IP – Greg Cozens
- Dover Castle Diamond Drilling – Matthew Haindl
Review of Mount Isa Seismic Data and Interpretations | 29 July, 2021
Presentations reviewed interpretations of seismic and magnetotellurics from the North West Mineral Province.
Presentations
- Review of Mount Isa Seismic data and interpretation – Dominic Brown
- The crustal architecture of North West Queensland from seismic and MT – Karen Connors
- Magnetotelluric data across the Mount Isa Province – Janelle Simpson
- Summary, insights, questions… Integration of Seismic and Magnetotellurics data – Karen Connors
- Mount Isa seismic data and interpretation – Q&A
New economy minerals compilations and atlases | 26 August, 2021
Presenters reviewed highlights from completed compilations and mineral deposit atlases from the Queensland Department of Resources New Economy Minerals Initiative. View some of the compilation: Sn-W Compilation, Si Compilation, REE Compilation, Co Compilation
Presentations
- REE Compilation – Rick Valenta
- Cobalt Compilation – Paul Gow
- Silica Compilation – Katerina Savinova
- Mt Carbine Tungsten Deposit – Nathan Fox
- Sn-W Compilations and North East Queensland Atlas – Paul Gow
Ideas for the future – the new generation of NW Mineral Province PhDs | 30 September, 2021
This webinar session was presented by a cohort of PhD students from different universities, who are developing the next generation of ideas and concepts for the North West Minerals Province.
Presentations
- Structural controls on high grade, shear zone hosted mineralisation at the Dugald River Zn-Pb-Ag deposit, Mount Isa Inlier – Pieter Creus, James Cook University
- Proterozoic crustal evolution of NE Australia after final Nuna assembly: new 40Ar/39Ar thermochronological constraints – Jiangyu Li, Curtin University
- North Australian Craton: the link between craton margin structures and base metal mineral systems – Fatemeh Amirpoorsaeed, Monash University
- Evolution of the Starra 222 Au-Cu Deposit: A Pyrite Chemistry Perspective – Max Hohl, University of Tasmania
- Characterising the mineralogical and geochemical halo of the giant Mt Isa Pb-Zn-Ag-Cu deposit using integrated hyperspectral and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning technology – Ali Parchegani, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Geometallurgical characterisation of mine waste at Capricorn Copper (Gunpowder) Mine, NWQMP: Exploring the potential for Cobalt recovery – Loren Nicholls, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Carbonate rare earth element and yttrium (REE+Y) geochemistry and its role in detecting hydrothermal alteration at George Fisher – Philip Rieger, University College Dublin, Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences
Value from tailings and mine waste | 28 October, 2021
During this session an update was given on the GSQ-SMI Critical Metals in Mine Waste Program. This 4-year program (2020–2024) evaluated 16 sites across Queensland where the focus has been on searching for cobalt, indium, rare earth minerals and tungsten in mine waste. The presentations included an overview of sampling methods, results update and an overview of metallurgical techniques appropriate for critical metal recovery. The session also introduced the application of new tools to assist with the characterisation of solid waste, relevant for investigating waste rock materials but also for drill core to define the chemical signature of future wastes and enhance the geometallurgical performance of planned and active mine sites. It concluded with a presentation from a company actively establishing a tailings reprocessing project in Queensland.
Presentations
- Value from tailings and mine waste, Introduction – Helen Degeling, GSQ
- Value from Queensland’s Mine waste: introduction to the SMI-GSQ Program – Anita Parbhakar-Fox, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Tools for geometallurgical characterisation of future waste – Loren Nicholls, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Spotlight in Mine Waste Sampling – Laura Jackson, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Field tools to identify critical minerals – evaluation of LIBS technology – Olivia Mejías, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
- New economy metal mapping in Queensland’s mine waste – Stream 1 results – Anita Parbhakar-Fox, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Mineral processing opportunities for mining and processing waste – Anne Whitworth
- Heritage Minerals – Mount Morgan Tailings Project – Peter Mellor, Heritage Minerals
Tool Time – Open Source Geoscientific Software | 25 November, 2021
This webinar focused on open source tools for exploration and geoscience and exploration. This edition highlights exciting tools and developments that cost absolutely nothing.
Presentations
- Using GPlates to find copper deposits for a clean energy future – John Cannon, University of Sydney
- Data Mosaic for analysing drill hole data – June Hill, CSIRO
- Visual Data Science for Geologists using Orange – Tom Carmichael, Datarock
- Doing it EASI – Open Data Cube and Dask for mapping from space – Richard Scott
- Examples of satellite data’s contributions to the raw materials using Sentinel-2 MSI – Elsy Ibrahim, University of Liège
- Quantitative description of REE patterns – Michael Anenburg, Australian National University
- High Quality Geophysical Analysis: Geophysical forward modelling, inversion and inference using Julia – Anandaroop Ray, Geoscience Australia
- Loop: an open-source, interoperable, integrated, probabilistic 3D geological modelling platform – Laurent Ailleres, Monash University
- ESyS-Particle: numerical modelling crustal deformation from first principles – Dion Weatherly, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Pyrolite: A Toolbox for Geochemical Data Analysis and Visualisation in Python – Morgan Williams, CSIRO
- jif3D – a framework for joint inversion of geophysical data – Max Moorkamp, Ludwig Maximilian University
- CloudCompare and the open source geology mapping tools – Steve Micklethwaite, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
- Critical Minerals Compilation Online Tool – Rick Valenta, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute
2020 webinars
April 2020 webinars
- Introduction to the Webinar Series
- Dr Helen Degeling – Director, Minerals Geoscience at the Geological Survey of Queensland, Department of Resources
- In early 2020, in response to travel restrictions, the Geological Survey of Queensland and UQ’s SMI inaugurated a webinar series to help continue to support Queensland’s explorers.
- Northwest Mineral Province – update on Deposit Atlas and other compilation datasets | 9 April, 2020
- Professor Rick Valenta, Associate Professor Paul Gow and Dr Nathan Fox.
- NW Mineral Province Deposit Atlas entries have been made for many major deposits in the Mount Isa region. This webinar provided an overview of the atlas entries that were produced to date, some of the information that compiled in those atlases and applications for exploration. Other datasets were also mentioned, that have been compiled from previous studies in the NW Mineral Province, and how to obtain and use them.
- Waste Characterisation with core scanning technologies | 16 April, 2020
- Associate Professor Anita Parbhakar-Fox
- The challenge remains for the mining industry to identify the mechanisms by which to cost effectively forecast and manage geoenvironmental risks at the earliest possible stage in a mine’s life. If adequately performed, appropriate allocation of funds and environmental management strategies can be developed and embedded into the mine plan enabling better closure outcomes. While the metalliferous mining industry is cognisant of this, another major challenge is finding the right tools to facilitate early stage waste characterisation. With an explosion of new tools and technologies for ore characterisation, there has never been a more opportunistic time to follow an environmental geometallurgy matrix approach whereby the geoenvironmental toolbox is used for waste characterisation. The toolkit includes application of hyperspectral technologies to derive geoenvironmental domaining index and automated acid rock drainage index values, improved used of handheld tools and chemical tests, data mining, and finding new applications for µCT and 3D XRF drill core scanners. This seminar introduces these and focusses on demonstrating applications of hyperspectral datasets as the metalliferous mining industry trend is currently towards collecting these data during early life-of-mine stages.
- 3D Data compilation in Geoscience Analyst: How to – examples from the NW Mineral Province Deposit Atlas | 23 April, 2020
- Associate Professor Paul Gow
- This webinar gives a demonstration of how to import various different common types of exploration into the free Geoscience Analyst program. Examples of Geoscience Analyst datasets of deposits from the NW Mineral Province can be downloaded here.
- Queensland Exploration Geochemistry and Mineral Geochemistry in Exploration | 30 April, 2020
- Queensland Exploration Geochemistry
- Dominic Brown – Geological Survey of Queensland
- GSQ holds an extensive collection of exploration geochemistry compiled from the throughout state. This collection features over 750,000 stream sediment samples and over 1,000,000 soil geochemistry samples. This data has been compiled by the Terrasearch, Map to Mine and GSQ over the last three decades. Between 2007 and 2011 Geoscience Australia completed the National Geochemical Survey of Australia which collected samples from 1390 catchments covering 91% of the Australian continent. This project sought to characterise the geochemistry of the entire continent, focusing on energy related elements but is applicable to other commodities. As a follow up to the NGSA the Cape York Peninsula was identified as a zone of anomalous GSQ completed a 189 sample survey of stream sediments of the Cape York Peninsula in 2014-2015 which followed the same methodology to identify the sources of the anomalism. In combination, these datasets provide a powerful tool for exploration. This seminar provided an overview and access to this suite of datasets.
- Geoscience Australia's Surface Geochemistry
- Philip Main – Geoscience Australia.
- Geochemistry in Mineral Exploration
- Joseph Tang – GSQ
- Mineral Chemistry in Exploration
- Dave Cooke – Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences (CODES)
- A shortcourse delivered by Professor David Cooke, from the Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences (CODES), the University of Tasmania. The short course presented an Introduction to Mineral Chemistry and its use in Mineral Exploration.
- Queensland Exploration Geochemistry
May 2020 webinars
Rock Samples from NW Mineral Province Deposits: Our Favourites | 7 May, 2020
- Richard Lilly – U. Adelaide; Matt Valetich – GSQ; Pieter Creus and Truong LE – JCU; Paul Gow and Rick Valenta – UQ
- Many major deposits from the Northwest mineral province have extensive publicly available core photography, hylogger data, and other datasets which demonstrate the mesoscopic characteristics of representative samples of ore and alteration in ways which previously weren’t possible or available. This session focused on the mesoscopic mineralogical and textural characteristics of a few selected samples or core intervals from a number of major deposits in the region. Projects covered included George Fisher, Mount Isa Copper, Ernest Henry, Tick Hill and others, with presenters focusing on presenting the typical characteristics of the rocks from these deposits, as well as talking about their observations and interpretations of those samples. Come away with a better understanding of what rocks from these deposits actually look like, and see similarities in exploration drilling.
- New Discovery Program Workshop | 14 May, 2020
- A summary of work conducted by GSQ’s collaborators to support exploration and discovery in the North West Minerals Province. The North West has not had a major base metal discovery since the early 2000’s, in spite of a huge amount of exploration and research in the area since the mid 1990’s. The Queensland Government aims to address this ‘discovery drought’ through the New Discovery Program, which brings new geophysics, geochemistry, geology and ore deposit analysis to the public domain. The New Discovery Program includes significant input from collaborator organisations, such as The University of Queensland, James Cook University, CODES, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia. Individual presenters will showcase their work supported by the New Discovery Program.
- New Discovery Program – Dr Helen Degeling, Director Minerals Geoscience, GSQ
- Airborne Geophysics – Matthew Greenwood
- Cloncurry Extension Magnetotelluric survey – Janelle Simpson
- Potential Fields in IOCG and BHT deposits – Jim Austin
- Deposit Atlas – Dugald River, Kalman and Roseby – Professor Rick Valenta, Dr Paul Gow, Dr Nathan Fox
- GSQ Reference Collection – Ernest Henry dataset – Vladimir Lisitsin, Courteney Dhnaram
- Mineral chemistry of IOCG deposits of North West Queensland – Shaun Barker
- Magma Fertility Project – Joan Sanislav
- Tick Hill Project – Paul Dirks
- Early Data Collection For Geometallurgy – Research and Industry Panel
- This webinar provided a range of perspectives on what companies can do at exploration stage to help understand the geometallurgical characteristics of the orebodies they are exploring and developing. How can we use mineralogical and geochemical information to predict mineral processing behaviour and spatially map it at exploration and development scale? What can we do to identify potential opportunities for sorting or waste rejection that may improve the economics of the orebody? What information will company metallurgists want from the exploration team, and how can they best work together? Chaired by Rick Valenta (SMI/UQ), Panelists included: Alice Clark – SMI/UQ; Angela Escolme – CODES/UTas; Nathan Fox – SMI/UQ; Scott Halley – Mineral Mapping Pty Ltd; Hedley Widdup – Lion Selection Ltd; Bevin Wong – JKTech
Queensland's Critical Minerals Workshop | 28 May 2020
It is well established that modern economies will increasingly depend on the supply of a broad and in some cases poorly understood and underexplored group of commodities termed the ‘critical minerals’, due to discrepancies between predicted demand versus known supply. The increasing production of electric motors, solar panels, batteries and wind turbines has led to an increased requirement for a large range of commodities including nickel, cobalt, lithium, rare earth elements and many others. While some required commodities, such as copper and zinc, are well-understood geologically and metallurgically, many others have relatively little attention in terms of process models, exploration and targeting. Much of the attention within Australia for critical mineral potential has focused on the world-class Lithium and rare earth elements (REE) endowment in Western Australia. Queensland also has strong, and in some cases un-recognised, potential for critical minerals. This webinar takes viewers through some of the work being done by GSQ and collaborators on critical mineral potential in Queensland, as well as solutions for barriers to potential, such as sustainable processing of REE.
- Workshop Introduction, Helen Degeling
- Critical Mineral Compilations, Professor Rick Valenta
- Critical Minerals in Copper Deposits, Vladimir Lisitsin
- Queensland's Secondary Prospectivity, Associate Professor Anita Parbhakar-Fox
- Sustainable Extraction of REE, Kate Tungpalan
- REE in peralkaline volcanics – Peaks Range, Ross Chandler
- REE in Nolan’s Bore style mineralisation, Michael Anenburg
- Prospectivity of REE in Phosphates, Matthew Valetich
- Indium in Sn deposits/ultramafic complexes, Ioan Sanislav
- REE unconformity model, Carl Spandler
June 2020 webinars
Magnetotellurics in Mineral Exploration | 4 June 2020
The magnetotelluric method is gaining prominence as a tool for deep exploration in the Australian minerals industry. This seminar provided an overview of the techniques’ use in exploration and presents two case studies. One case study at a regional scale, and the second one at an exploration targeting scale.
Presentations
- 3D inversion of MT data from East Tennant: New insight from inverting tipper and Phase tensor, Naser Meqbel
- Modelling outcomes of the Isa Extension Magnetotelluric survey, Janelle Simpson
- MT Industry case study: Helios, Shane Evans
Metal Isotopes in Ore Deposits and Applications to Exploration | 11 June 2020
Metal isotopes provide novel insights into the history of ore minerals, from their genesis all the way to their current distribution in economically viable quantities. They can provide independent constraints on the conditions of ore deposit formation and evolution, while also complementing conventional approaches. However, as a burgeoning area of research, the utility of metal isotopes in these applications has yet to be fully realized. This webinar instalment explored the state-of-the-art and future horizons of metal isotopes in mineral exploration.
Presentations
- Introduction to Metal Isotopes in ore deposits and applications to exploration, Ryan Mathur
- Stable metal isotopes in mineral exploration – Gearing lab capabilities and practices to meet industry needs, Brandon Mahan
- Osmium isotopes in ore deposits, Bruce Schaefer
- Lead isotopes in ore deposits, Dave Huston
Geophysics in Mineral Exploration | 18 June, 2020
Bringing together geophysicists with diverse skills and backgrounds, this webinar presented new data and new perspectives on old datasets, with a special focus on implications for mineral exploration. Though largely focused on datasets from the NW Minerals Province, Queensland, the concepts and methods may be applied in any mineralised terrain.
Presentations
- IOCG Geophysics, Petrophysics, Geochemistry and Mineralogy, Jim Austin
- World's largest AEM survey, Yuseyn LeyCooper and Sebastian Wong
- AIP Effects in AEM, Andrea Viezzoli
- 3D Mineral Potential Modelling in the Quamby region, Matt Greenwood, Courteney Dhnaram
- Landsborough Graben Passive Seismic, George Ross
Innovation in Industry | 25 June, 2020
In this online workshop mineral explorers discussed their projects, insights and experiences, with projects from across Queensland, both the North West Minerals Province and the North East.
Presentations
- Cu-Au mineralisation of the Cloncurry district: Recognising diversity within a mineralised province, Glen Little
- Innovation and Sweat – Red Metal’s Grass Roots Exploration Activities in NW Queensland, Rob Rutherford
- A new style lithium province: an explorative case study, Graham Willett
Finding the basement under cover | 23 July, 2020
As exploration moves increasingly under cover, it becomes more and more important to understand the nature and thickness of the cover, and to understand the different exploration approaches that suit those cover characteristics. These presentations provided information on newly-compiled cover thickness and domain datasets from GSQ, many of the new cover and basement datasets released as part of Geoscience Australia's highly successful Exploring for the Future Program, and some practical approaches to geological interpretation and exploration in covered settings presented by the WH Bryan Mining Geology Research Centre.
Presentations
- The NW Mineral Province Domain Map, Joseph Tang and Dominic Brown
- A chronostratigraphic approach to map the cover in northern Australia, Marie-Aude Bonnardot and Nadege Rollet
- Finding the basement under cover: Practical examples including SEEBASE, Karen Connors and Zhiqun Shi
- Depth domains – some practical examples, Rick Valenta
Remote Sensing and UAV Datasets | 27 August 2020
The outcropping area of the NW Mineral Province has shown itself to be a world class mineral province, but potential remains to use remote sensing datasets to recognise haloes of orebodies which do not reach the surface. There are a large number of multispectral and hyperspectral datasets available in the area including satellite, airborne and drillcore-based data. These datasets have been the subject of numerous studies, and it is important to ensure that explorers are aware of the potential benefits to the discovery process of the various datasets that are available. This webinar brought together experts in processing and interpretation of remote sensing data, who presented practical examples of the use of these datasets in exploration.
Presentations
- Introduction and Overview, Rick Valenta
- Remote sensing for mineral exploration, Carsten Laukamp
- Targeting rare earth element bearing mine tailings with remote sensing datasets, Imam Purwadi
- Visual and Multispectral UAV Surveys at Mary Kathleen, Peter Erskine
- UAV magnetic surveying, Laurent Ameglio
Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI) Round 3 Results | 24 September 2020
This webinar features presentations of results from a selection of successful applicants from the Round 3 Collaborative Exploration Initiative for Queensland.
Presentations
- Introduction – Collaborative Exploration Initiative – Rhys Davies
- Moho Resources – Bob Affleck
- Transition Resources – Ken Collerson
- Chinova Resources – Shaun Anderson
- Hammer Metals – Mark Whittle
Industry Innovation | 29 October, 2020
This sessions topic was ‘Industry Innovation’ with a collection of innovative and daring companies that presented in this webinar, including Cronimet, Metalbank, Strategic Energy Resources and newcomer Sunshine Resources.
Presentations
- Stuart Rechner, Strategic Energy Resources – Stuart Rechner
- Sunshine Resources – Damien Keys
- Metal Bank – Trevor Wright
- Cronimet Mining – Damien Lefevre
Partnership
