|
Water leads the way to nickel wealth |
|
CRC Mineral Exploration and Landscape Environments
|
|
Wednesday, 21 March 2007 |
|
Analysing groundwater could be the new way to search for nickel in Western Australia’s North-eastern goldfields.
According to a new report released by the Cooperative Research Centre for Mineral Exploration and Landscape Environments (CRC LEME), groundwater hydrogeochemistry can be a useful tool for nickel exploration in the North-eastern Yilgarn Craton.
The report was created from the results of a groundwater investigation undertaken by CRC LEME in the Agnew Wiluna Greenstone Belt of Western Australia for four mineral exploration companies actively exploring for nickel in the area.
LEME Researcher Dr David Gray (CSIRO Exploration and Mining) said the study’s principle objective was to develop reliable regional and smaller-scale hydrochemical nickel sulphide mineralisation indicators.
“While the study region has relatively low concentrations of dissolved metals compared to the groundwaters of the central and southern Yilgarn regions, the results suggest groundwater has significant potential as a medium-scale, nickel exploration tool,” Dr Gray said.
The report’s findings have specific implications to smaller-scale investigations assessing near-miss drilling down strike from known mineralisation and hydrogeochemically similar prospects.
“Most high metals concentrations associated with nickel hydrogeochemical signatures are indicative of sulphide mineralisation,” Dr Gray explained.
“Chromium is the best indicator element for sulphur-poor rocks, while nickel, cobalt, platinum and tungsten indicate nickel sulphide mineralisation with the larger, more mineralised deposits showing the larger hydrogeochemical signatures.”
|
