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Using automated mineralogy to define indicator mineral signatures around the Julimar nickel-copper-PGE project, Western Australia

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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Indicator minerals are those minerals that indicate the presence of a specific mineral deposit, alteration or lithology[1]. Their utility to the exploration industry has been demonstrated in a range of environments and across multiple deposit types including Cu-Au porphyry[2], Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag VMS[3] and Ni-Cu-PGE[4]. Recent developments in the field of SEM-EDS analysis have enabled the rapid quantitative identification of indicator minerals during regional sampling campaigns[4,5]. Despite the demonstrated utility of indicator minerals for diamond and base metal exploration in Canada, Russia and Africa, there are relatively few case studies published from Australian deposits. We present the results of an indicator mineral case study over the Julimar exploration project located 90 km NE of Perth. The Gonneville Ni-Cu-PGE deposit, discovered by Chalice Mining in 2020, is hosted within a ~30 km long belt of 2670 Ma ultramafic intrusions within the western margin of the Yilgarn Craton[6]. Stream sediments collected from drainage channels around the Gonneville deposit were analysed by quantitative mineralogy techniques to determine if a unique indicator mineral footprint exists there. Samples were processed and analysed for heavy minerals using a workflow developed for the Curtin University-Geoscience Australia Heavy Mineral Map of Australia project[7]. Results indicate elevated abundances of indicator minerals associated with ultramafic/mafic magmatism and Ni-sulfide mineralisation in the drainages within the Julimar project area, including pyrrhotite, pentlandite, pyrite and chromite. We conclude that indicator mineral studies using automated mineralogy are powerful, yet currently underutilised, tools for mineral exploration in Australian environments. [1]McClenaghan, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1144/1467-7873/03-066 [2]Hashmi et al., 2015. https://doi.org/10.1144/geochem2014-310 [3]Lougheed et al., 2020. https://doi.org/10.3390/min10040310 [4]McClenaghan & Cabri, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1144/1467-7873/10-IM-026 [5]Porter et al., 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2020.103406 [6]Lu et al., 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.35768.47367 [7]Caritat et al., 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/min12080961 This Abstract was submitted/presented to the 2023 Australian Exploration Geoscience Conference 13-18 Mar (https://2023.aegc.com.au/)

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Field Value
Title Using automated mineralogy to define indicator mineral signatures around the Julimar nickel-copper-PGE project, Western Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/c495e170-d6f8-4c6e-9ab6-62367cf496b4
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 05/10/2022
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Using automated mineralogy to define indicator mineral signatures around the Julimar nickel-copper-PGE project, Western Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/using-automated-mineralogy-to-define-indicator-mineral-signatures-around-the-julimar-nickel-cop