An integrated toolkit to support decision making for exploration: Bluecap models of Ni-Co-laterite potential in the Tasmanides

Mineral prospectivity models have been successful in informing mineral exploration decisions in Australia (e.g. Dulfer et al., 2016). However, understanding the geological potential for discovery is not the full picture. To support successful exploration, we need the ability to quickly estimate the relative economic viability of exploration targets. This raises the question, how can we assess geological potential within the constraints of economic feasibility? How can we define the economic fairways for resource discovery and development? Bluecap (Walsh et al., 2020) is an economic simulator developed for Australian resource projects developed in collaboration between Geoscience Australia and Monash University. It does this by integrating industry cost models and development data with large-scale geological and infrastructure datasets to evaluate the mining, processing, administrative and infrastructure expenses of mining operations across Australia. By bringing financial considerations much earlier in the exploration framework, to sit alongside more-traditional prospectivity studies, the goal is to highlight regions of high potential value in the early planning/exploration phase. In doing so, Bluecap is designed to assist companies in focusing their efforts on regions more likely to generate commercially-viable projects. A key feature of the software is its ability to provide rapid geospatial estimates of economic potential across the Australian continent. Components of the Bluecap analysis can be accessed through the Economic Fairways Mapper, an assessment tool incorporated in Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future portal. The open-source Bluecap code, which is available via Github (https://github.com/GeoscienceAustralia/bluecap), also provides additional functionality for calculations better suited to offline platforms. As an example of Economic Fairways analysis, we evaluate the economic potential for nickel-cobalt-laterite development across the Tasmanides. Presented at the 2022 8th Mines & Wines Conference - Discoveries in the Tasmanides.