GEMOC ARC National Key Centre
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Industry interaction
INDUSTRY INTERACTION, TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND COMMERCIALISATION PROGRAM
GEMOC RELIES on a vigorous interaction with the mineral exploration industry at both the research and the teaching/training levels. The research results of the Centre's work are transferred to the industry and to the scientific community by:
- interaction through collaborative industry-supported Honours, MSc and PhD projects
- short courses relevant to the industry and government sector users, designed to communicate and transfer new technologies, new techniques and new knowledge in the discipline areas covered by the Key Centre
- one-on-one research collaborations and shorter-term consultancies on industry problems involving national and international partners
- provision of high quality geochemical analyses and interpretations to industry and government organisations, extending our industry interface
- use of Macquarie Research Limited consultancies, which employ and disseminate the technological developments carried out by the Centre
- GLITTER, an on-line data-reduction program for Laser Ablation ICPMS analysis developed by GEMOC and CSIRO GEMOC participants, is available commercially through New Wave Research
- collaborative relationships with technology manufacturers
(more detail in the section on Technology Development):
- GEMOC (Macquarie) is the Agilent Technologies ICPMS Australian demonstration site
- GEMOC (Macquarie) is the international Alpha test site for
New Wave Research Lasers
SUPPORT SOURCES
GEMOC industry support includes:
- direct funding of research programs
- "in kind" funding including field support (Australia and overseas), access to proprietary databases, sample collections, digital datasets
- collaborative research programs (eg SPIRT, APA Industry and PhD program support)
- assistance in the implementation of GIS technology in postgraduate programs
- participation of industry colleagues as guest lecturers in senior courses (eg Bachelor of Technology)
- extended visits to Macquarie by industry personnel for interaction and research
PROGRESS IN 2000
The mineral exploration industry provided funding for two postgraduate student projects at Macquarie in 2000. In each case, the companies have provided invaluable in-kind support, and have been closely involved in shaping the research project.
A collaborative research project with Kennecott Canada Inc., funded by a SPIRT grant, continued within the Lithosphere Mapping strand. GEMOC staff visited Kennecott operations in Vancouver and Thunder Bay during 2000, and Kennecott and Diavik staff came to Macquarie. Dr Yvette Poudjom Djomani completed a geophysical analysis of the Slave craton. Reports were prepared on xenolith petrology and diamond characteristics, and the first Re-Os dates were obtained on sulfide inclusions in olivine grains from the A154 kimberlite (see Research Highlights).
10 Industry Reports were completed for collaborative and consulting projects.
A new collaborative project using gravity data over the Carpentaria region to interpret effective elastic thickness and integrate this with tectonic analysis and geochemical data, was undertaken with a collaborative WMC/Macquarie University Grant. This represents an extension of the very successful 1998-1999 project that carried out a similar analysis over the whole of the Siberian Platform. Planning and workshop sessions at Macquarie with participants from WMC and GEMOC, and a visit by Macquarie staff to WMC in Perth, were key activities. This work led directly to a new SPIRT grant (2001-2003) sponsored by WMC, which will extend the study to much of Australia.
DeBeers (Johannesburg), who provided contributory capital funding for the new MC-ICPMS, have continued a schedule of regular visits to Macquarie to participate in aspects of the development of LAM-ICPMS and MC-ICPMS techniques and applications. U-Pb dating of zircons by LAM-ICPMS was a focus of technology exchange with DeBeers in 2000.
The new exploration consulting group GeoDiscovery is actively working with GEMOC to develop techniques for terrane analysis (see Research Highlights). A GeoDiscovery/Macquarie collaborative project supported this project in 2000, and a Pasminco/GEMOC collaborative grant, brokered by GeoDiscovery continues the program in 2001 (see summaries of current industry projects below). Dr Steve Walters visits Macquarie frequently to participate in this collaboration.
Many companies have provided high levels of in-kind support in the form of samples: these include access to diamonds and xenoliths through Rio Tinto and Kennecott Canada, suites of xenoliths from Ashton Mining of Canada and heavy mineral concentrates from numerous sources including BHP, Stockdale Prospecting and many small companies.
Numerous industry visitors spent varying periods at GEMOC in 2000 to discuss our research and technology development (see visitor list, Appendix 3).
DIATREEM continued to provide LAM-ICPMS analyses of garnets and chromites to the diamond-exploration industry on a routine basis, in cooperation with CSIRO, North Ryde.
At ANU (Blevin, Chappell) "Igneous Metallogenic Systems of Eastern Australia" continued to be funded by AMIRA (Project P515).
GEMOC publications, preprints and non-proprietary reports are available on request for industry libraries.
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CURRENT INDUSTRY-FUNDED COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS
These are brief descriptions of current GEMOC projects that
have direct cash support from industry. Projects are both national
and global.
LITHOSPHERE-SCALE CONTEXT OF MINERALISATION IN THE CARPENTARIA REGION
Industry Collaborator: WMC
Summary: This project involves analysis of existing geophysical
datasets (gravity, magnetics) to map fundamental lithospheric
domains in the Carpentaria region (NT, Queensland); the tools
will include maps of lithospheric strength and derivatives of
the geophysical data at several wavelengths. A synthesis of stratigraphic
and tectonic information, and new data from analysis of detrital
zircons, will be used to interpret these lithospheric domains,
and to identify the relationships between this architecture and
the localisation of large ore bodies. Outcomes will include a
methodology applicable to the rest of Australia, and a better
understanding of the development of the lithosphere and its mineralisation
in this region.
Yvette Poudjom Djomani (from right) visiting WMC Perth with Howard Golden, Nick Hayward and Lisa Vella.
PROTEROZOIC CRUSTAL EVOLUTION AND TERRANE CHARACTERISATION IN NW INDIA
Industry Collaborator: Pasminco
Summary: This project is applying novel techniques developed
by GEMOC to examine processes of crustal formation. This involves
measuring the U-Pb ages, Hf isotopes and trace elements of detrital
zircons from the Mangalwar Complex of NW India, to study the timing,
nature and sources of magmatic and metamorphic rocks. The Event
Signature produced by this work will be compared with our data
from the geologically similar Mount Isa block, and correlated
with differences and similarities in known mineralisation styles.
The project is the beginning of a library of such Event Signatures
for application to area selection in mineral exploration.
GEOCHEMICAL EVENT SIGNATURES IN THE EASTERN SUCCESSION OF THE MT. ISA DISTRICT
Industry Collaborators: Geodiscovery, BHP.
Summary: This project is applying new laser-microprobe analytical
technology to determine the U-Pb age, Hf-isotope composition and
trace-element patterns of large numbers of individual zircon grains
taken from stream sands in the Eastern Succession of the Mt. Isa
district. These data will define "event signatures"
characterising the formation of the continental crust (and its
major ore deposits) in this area in Proterozoic time, and will
clarify the degree of crust-mantle interaction involved. We expect
the results to demonstrate the usefulness of this new approach
both for basic research into crustal genesis, and for area selection
in the mineral exploration industry.
ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF CU AND FE IN ORE MINERALS
Industry Collaborator Consortium: Phelps Dodge, North
(now Rio Tinto), Anglo American, Cameco corporation, WMC.
Summary: Isotopic geochemistry is a basic tool for understanding
ore-forming processes, but abundant stable-isotope data exist
only for elements such as sulfur, oxygen and carbon. New laser-ablation
multicollector-ICPMS technology allows in-situ analysis of the
isotopic composition of transition elements, and opens new possibilities
for research into ore genesis. We will investigate the isotopic
composition of Cu and Fe in minerals from several important ore
deposits. The results will help us to understand the range and
causes of isotopic fractionation in these elements, and to evaluate
the usefulness of these techniques in mineral exploration and
studies of ore genesis.
IGNEOUS METALLOGENIC SYSTEMS OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA
Industry Collaborator: AMIRA (Project P515: Newcrest,
North (now Rio Tinto), Ross (now Delta), AGSO, NSWGS, QDME, Triako
Normandy)
Summary: This project builds on previous successful AMIRA
projects (P147A and B, P425) which have dealt with the chemistry
of the granites of eastern Australia and intrusion related Au
deposits. The project will provide a first pass metallogenic classification
of the granites of eastern Australia using existing data and a
substantial body of new granite chemical data from eastern Queensland.
Databases of igneous rocks associated with large to world class
ore deposits of Cu, Au, Sn, W and Mo will also be compiled and
used as templates to help assign metallogenic potential to granite
suites and help recognised under-explored regions within eastern
Australia. Improved data on ore elements in granites, the behaviour
of these elements during differentiation, the application of new
techniques to aspects of granite related hydrothermal systems,
and user-friendly field-based techniques to establish the metallogenic
potential of intrusives are also objectives of this project.
APPLICATION OF LITHOSPHERE MAPPING TO DIAMOND EXPLORATION MODELS: SLAVE CRATON, CANADA
Industry Collaborator: Kennecott Canada
Summary: This project aims to define the composition and structure
of the upper mantle beneath the Slave Craton of northern Canada,
using mineral and rock samples from newly-discovered kimberlites,
and relate this structure to the nature and distribution of diamonds
across the Craton. Geophysical and tectonic analysis will be used
to understand the 3-dimensional structure of the cratonic lithosphere
and its evolution. This work will clarify the processes that form
and modify cratonic lithosphere, and lead to an integrated model
for diamond exploration in the Slave Craton, and to concepts and
mineral exploration methodologies that can be exported to other
regions.
Note: GEMOC's methods have been instrumental in Kennecott's discovery of new diamond-bearing kimberlites in northern Canada.
LITHOSPHERIC ARCHITECTURE OF AUSTRALIA: RELEVANCE TO LOCATION
OF GIANT ORE BODIES
Industry Collaborator: WMC
Summary: This research project is designed to test the concept
that giant magmatic and hydrothermal ore bodies are localised
by major structural discontinuities that extend through the Earth's
lithosphere. Modelling of geophysical data across the Australian
continent will define regional trans-lithospheric domains and
their boundaries. Tectonic analysis and geochemical data on crustal
and mantle rocks will define the age and composition of the upper
mantle beneath each domain, and the history of crust-mantle interaction
(magmatism, extension, compression). This history will be integrated
with information on the timing and style of large ore deposits
to understand the relationship between lithosphere domains and
large-scale mineralisation.
