John Miller Deputy Director, Centre for Exploration Targeting,

University of Western Australia

CET Corporate Member’s Day, 9 December 2013

UNCOVER: Finding the next generation of Australian

mineral deposits

What is the Challenge? • Corporate growth in resource companies has

dominantly been driven by M&A rather than new discoveries that truly add value

• Reserve depletion outstrips replenishment – Replenishment efforts focused on near mine and

brownfields exploration, which has finite potential and can in some cases actually destroy value

– Has not yet been a significant increase in true greenfields exploration expenditure

So there is motivation and a market for more effective targeting methods and tools, and more effective detection technologies

Exploration Success Out-Performs – ASX Example

Arvidson 2013

ALLAN TRENCH

LEADER OF CET PROGRESSIVE

RISK AND VALUE

ANALYSIS

THEME

Marginal deposits will not fill the gap

Commodity Price

Production cost

Pre-boom, subeconomic

Early boom, economic

Late boom, marginal

Crash, very subeconomic

Time

$

McCuaig, March 2009

Need high quality deposits

~80% of landmass (7.5M km2) under cover

Both challenge and opportunity!

Major defined as >1Moz Au, >1Mt Cu, >100Kt Ni or equiv.

Excludes bulk commodities Bauxite,

Coal, Iron Ore

Australia’s cover challenge

www.im4dc.org

www.science.org.au/policy/documents/uncover-report.pdf Endorsement by federal government, government surveys,

CSIRO, major geoscience research groups nation-wide

Collaborative Network Independent Strategic Vision

A Vision for Exploration Geoscience

Launched August 2012 by the Minister for Resources & Energy, Martin Ferguson MP The project arose from the Academy’s 2010 Theo Murphy High Flyers Think Tank, Searching the deep earth: the future of Australian resource discovery and utilisation.

A Vision for Exploration Geoscience

“Geoscience research communities should see the vision as a catalyst to collaboration.” “State and federal agencies should see this as a scientific basis to inform a vision for the future of Australia’s mineral resources sector.”

propose a new exploration geoscience researcher network and four important initiatives focused on the genesis, distribution and discovery of the nation’s mineral wealth.

A Vision for Exploration Geoscience

• Exploration geoscience research network • Characterising Australia’s cover - new knowledge to confidently explore

beneath it • Investigating Australia’s lithospheric architecture - a whole lithosphere

architectural framework for mineral systems exploration • Resolving the 4D geodynamic and metallogenic evolution of Australia -

understanding ore deposit origins for better prediction • Characterising and detecting the distal footprints of ore deposits -

towards a toolkit for minerals exploration

This proposes an exploration geoscience researcher network and four important initiatives;

Focused on the genesis, distribution and discovery of the nation’s mineral wealth

Need to predict location at global to regional scale To refine search space “Are we in the right area?” Can be done within a mineral systems framework.

Need to be able to detect deposit 1) Outcropping deposit 2) Sub-cropping and/or surface

anomalism-ground water 3) Under cover or “blind”

Different detection methods e.g. gossan, soil anomalies, geophysical anomalies

Mineral System

Mineral System “model”

Research into different components (Talk by Thébaud)

Deposit

Regional

Global

v v

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v

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Andamooka Limesto ne

CAMBRIAN

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Surface EW

20 0

200+

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Widdup et al., 2004

Olympic Dam >200m cover

Pilbara Craton

Yilgarn Craton

Musgraves

Craton margins

Tier 1 NiS deposits

Granitoid NdTM after Cassidy and Champion 2007 Yilgarn Au after Robert et al. (2005)

Cratonic architecture – a whole lithospheric approach, can target key conduits

Nova

Tropicana (soil anomaly)

Nova NiS deposit

Tropicana Au

www.im4dc.org

The Role of Pre-competitive Geodata

REGIONAL GEOLOGICAL

MAPPING

MINERAL RESOURCES ASSESSMENT

REGIONAL EXPLORATION

10

100

1,000,000

>10,000,000

100,000

USD/km2

DETAILED EXPLORATION

MINE DEVELOPMENT

PUBLIC FUNDING

PRIVATE FUNDING

• Help as incentive for exploration investment • Cost function of the quality and type of data • Long run pay-offs deter some governments

Source: World Bank

www.im4dc.org

13/08/05 Sirius Resources Diggers and Dealers Presentation

Background to image is a GSWA precompetitive data set

High quality regional data sets also exist in other parts of the world…….aim to discover deposits in Australia

14 © – Not for duplication or circulation without permission

Integrated West African Exploration GIS Online and disk-based access Coverage at following scales:

˃Country ˃West Africa ˃ Africa ˃ Global ˃Marine

5 Themes: ˃ Geography ˃ Geology ˃ Geophysics ˃ Mineralisation ˃ (Tectonics)

Online WAXI GIS 240 layers (65 at end WAXI I

80 layers unique to WAXI 300 Gb

Integrated import into ArcMap and MapInfo

15 of 22

Regional Gravity data West Africa

http://bgi.obs-mip.fr/en/data-products Bouguer Radiometrics

RTP 1VD

Major field mapping programs to constrain interpretation of potential field data

Metelka et al., (2011) Baratoux et al., (2011)

SE Burkina Faso

Kalana

100 km 100 km

WA

XI S

truct

ural

Geo

phys

ics

Man

ual 2

013

3/16

Kalana Termite hill geochemistry

http://www.infomine.com/index/pr/pb296992.pdf

Extensive coverage of similar data sets across west Africa = getting harder to make a first pass, near surface discovery using “tried and tested” empirical methods Current state of play: need to balance technical risk of exploring under cover in “older” mature terranes versus targeting shallower ore bodies in “newer” areas of the developing world (with country risk/ resource nationalism).

Distal Footprints of Giant Ore Systems

>$12M new initiative over Capricorn Orogen

Project Leader Dr Rob Hough

Passive Seismic Array

Better precompetitive data sets integrated with multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research.

Collaboration of Industry, Government and Academia.

2/18 WA

XI S

truct

ural

Geo

phys

ics

Man

ual 2

013

GIS->WEB Ability to do data

integration and delivery

Not all just about generating new high quality pre-competitive data, doing better data integration or more

research into understanding mineral systems. We also need to get smarter about the way we explore and

spend exploration dollars.

Develop tools to assist interpretation

Assist the training of exploration decision making skills

Understand effective data interpretation practice

CET Exploration Simulator

Televiewer Image Analysis (TIAS) Software

Full Tensor Gradient Data Visualisation

Image Enhancement/Blending

Semi-automated Geological Structure Mapping

Downhole Geophysical Data Analysis

Human Data Interaction Analysis

CET Exploration Simulator Researchers: Jason Wong, Eun-Jung Holden, Peter Kovesi, Cam McCuaig, Jon Hronsky, Mark Jessell

Objective. Understand.

Explore.

Interrogate.

Drill.

Success … ?

Target deposit type + budget

Initial low-res (regional) data Conduct geophysical surveys

Interpret + increase understanding

Drill suspected areas

Validate successful discovery

Understanding geoscientific data interpretation practice

– Yathunanthan Sivarajah (PhD Student, CET, UWA) – Supervisors: Eun-Jung Holden, Mike Dentith, External

collaborators: Roberto Togneri (EE, UWA), Greg Price (Psychiatry, UWA),Tele Tan (Eng, Curtin)

Electroence-phalography

(EEG)

Study 2: Identify easy-to-detect target characteristics

Using Eye Tracking System (ETS) & user feedback

Study 1: Learn effective interpretation practice

http://detcrc.com.au/

www.science.org.au/policy/documents/uncover-report.pdf

Endorsement by federal government, government surveys, CSIRO, major geoscience research groups nation-wide

A Vision for Exploration Geoscience