Industry interaction  

INDUSTRY INTERACTION AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER ACTIVITIES

CCFS has a strategic goal to interact closely 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 industry and to the scientific community in several ways:

• collaborative industry-supported Honours, MSc and PhD projects

• short courses relevant to industry and government-sector users, designed to communicate and transfer new technologies, techniques and knowledge in the discipline areas relevant to CCFS

• one-on-one research collaborations and shorter-term collaborative research on industry problems involving national and international partners

• provision of high-quality geochemical analyses with value-added interpretations on a collaborative research basis with industry and government organisations, extending our industry interface

• use of consultancies and collaborative industry projects (through the commercial arms of the national universities) which employ and disseminate the technological and conceptual 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, has been successfully commercialised and continues to be available from GEMOC through Access MQ (http://www.gemoc.mq.edu.au/); the software is continually upgraded.

• collaborative relationships with technology manufacturers (more detail in the section on Infrastructure and technology development)

The Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET) at UWA (http://www.cet.edu.au/industry-linkage) provides CCFS with a unique interface with a broad spectrum of mineral exploration companies and many CET activities (e.g. research projects, workshops and postgraduate short courses). 

CCFS suports the national UNCOVER initiative

SUPPORT SOURCES

CCFS industry support includes:

• direct funding of research programs 
• industry subscriptions (CET)
• “in kind” funding including field support (Australia and overseas), access to proprietary databases, sample collections, digital datasets and support for GIS platforms 
• logistical support for fieldwork for postgraduate projects
• collaborative research programs through ARC Linkage Projects and the University External Collaborative Grants (e.g. Macquarie’s Enterprise Grant Scheme) and PhD program support
• assistance in the implementation of GIS technology in postgraduate programs 
• participation of industry colleagues as guest lecturers in undergraduate units 
• extended visits by industry personnel for interaction and research
• ongoing informal provision of advice and formal input as members of the Advisory Board
   

ACTIVITIES IN 2017

• TerraneChron® studies have enjoyed continued uptake by a significant segment of the global mineral exploration industry. This methodology, currently unique to CCFS/GEMOC, requires the integration of data from three instruments (electron microprobe, LAM-ICPMS and LAM-MC-ICPMS) and delivers fast, cost-effective information on the tectonic history of regional terranes (http://www.gemoc. mq.edu.au/TerraneChron.html). The unique extensive database (over 31,600 zircon U-Pb and Hf-isotope analyses) in the Macquarie laboratory allows unparalleled contextual information in the interpretations and reports provided to industry.

 

• The Distal Footprints of Giant Ore Systems: UNCOVER Australia, (supported by CSIRO ex Science & Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF), MERIWA and industrycollaborators) continued. The project aims to develop a toolkit with a workflow to identify the distal footprints of the Giant Ore Systems in order toovercome the fundamental limitation in current exploration methodologies; Australia’s thick cover of weathered rock and sediment.

Sarah Gain and Jinxiang Huang searching for exotic minerals in the Shefa Yamim (A.T.M) Ltd. mineral sorting facitlity in Akko, with COO Vered Toledo and assistant Mendi Taub in the background.

• The CCFS collaboration with Shefa Yamim (A.T.M.) Ltd. (Akko, Israel) continued and expanded in 2017. Bill Griffin and Sue O’Reilly visited Israel in January to give talks at the annual congress of the Israeli Geological Society (IGS) in Eilat. There was also a very active and vibrant poster session. Following the meeting they returned to the Mt Carmel area to examine and sample several localities of the Cretaceous volcanic rocks, and to visit the alluvial exploration sites under the guidance of Dr John Ward, an expert on alluvial mining. Laboratory work on the remarkable super-reduced mineral associations continued, including collaboration with Prof Martin Saunders in the TEM lab at CMCA in Perth.

 

• CET held their annual “Corporate Members Day” on the 5h of December 2017, to showcase its research to its Corporate Members. The day provided an audience of over 70 representatives from CET Member companies with the opportunity to discuss the innovative work of the CET, including its involvement in CCFS, and gave CCFS ECR and postgraduate students a chance to interact with industry. Posters and poster presentations by CET staff and students showcased the width and breadth of research activities. CCFS participant, Crystal LaFlamme presented a talk on "Mapping deposit footprint, tracing fluid sources and deposition processes orogenic gold deposit in the Yilgarn Craton: new application of sulfur isotope geochemistry"

 

• The ARC Linkage Project titled “Global Lithosphere Architecture Mapping” (GLAM) was extended as the “LAMP” (Lithosphere Architecture Mapping in Phanerozoic orogens) project through a Macquarie University Enterprise Grant with Minerals Targeting International as the external industry partner. A sub-licensing agreement with Minerals Targeting International accommodates Dr Graham Begg’s role and access to GLAM IP (in relationship to Macquarie, BHP Billiton and the GLAM project) as Director of this company. Dr Begg spent significant research time at GEMOC through 2017 as part of the close collaborative working pattern for this project.

 

• The Linkage Project “Ore deposits and tectonic evolution of the Lachlan Orogen, SE Australia” continued between CCFS Associate Investigator Elena Belousova, the University of Tasmania, ANU, the Geological Survey of NSW, Geoscience Australia, Rio Tinto Limited, Alkane Resources Ltd, Sandfire Resources Nl, IMEX Consulting, Evolution Mining Limited, Heron Resources Limited and the Department of State Growth. The project aims to look at ore deposits and the tectonic evolution of the Lachlan Orogen in SE Australia. The outcomes of this project will be used to identify areas of high potential for economically valuable ore deposits, enabling more efficient prioritisation of mineral exploration efforts in South-Eastern Australia.

 

• The GEMOC technique for dating the intrusion of kimberlites and lamproites using LAM-ICPMS U-Pb analysis of groundmass perovskite continued. This rapid, low-cost application has proven very attractive to the diamond exploration industry, and has led to several collaborative projects. It played a significant role in Montgarri Castillo- Oliver’s PhD study of Angolan kimberlites, carried out in collaboration with the mineral exploration industry in Angola.

 

• A collaborative research project continued in 2016 with the GSWA as a formal CCFS Flagship Program, in which GEMOC is carrying out in situ Hf-isotope analyses of previously SHRIMP- dated zircon grains from across the state. This is a part of the WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme.

 

• Following Professor Bill Griffin’s Noumea workshop on new approaches to exploration and minor-element exploitation in ophiolitic complexes, a collaborative project was established with Jervois Mining, involving a cotutelle PhD student (Mathieu Chassé) jointly supervised by Professor George Callas, Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris, France. This project continued in 2017, culminating in Mathieu receiving his PhD. The project has led to significant advances in understanding the speciation and mineral residence of the element Scandium (Sc) in lateritic weathering profiles developed on mafic and ultramafic rocks. It also has helped to characterise and define a world-class Sc resource in western New South Wales, and to provide indicators for further exploration. Mathieu has gone on to take up an Assistant Lecturer position at Pierre and Marie Curie University, France.

 

• Industry partners provided mentoring and both logistical and financial support for CCFS postgraduate research projects in 2017. Participating organisations include: BHP Billiton (BHP Chile Inc.), Barrick Exploration (Compania Minera Barrick Chile Ltd.), Northern Star (Kanowna) Pty ltd., Teck Resources Ltd, CSIRO, ANSTO and MRIWA. See CCFS Postgraduates (p. 75) for a full list of postgraduate projects.

 

• Industry visitors spent varying periods at Macquarie, Curtin and UWA (CET) in 2017 to discuss our research and technology development (see visitor list, Appendix 7). This face-to-face interaction has proved highly effective both for CCFS researchers and industry colleagues.

 

• CCFS publications, preprints and non-proprietary reports are available on request for industry libraries.

 

• CCFS participants were prominent in delivering keynote and invited talks and workshop modules, and convening sessions relevant to mineral exploration at national and international industry peak conferences in 2017 (see Abstracts, Appendix 6).

A full list of previous GEMOC publications is available at here

Current industry-funded collaborative research projects

These are brief descriptions of current CCFS projects that have direct cash support from industry, most with combinations from ARC, internal University or State Government support.

Projects are both national and global. In addition to these formal projects, many shorter projects are directly funded by industry, and the results of these feed into our basic research databases (with varied confidentiality considerations). Such projects are administered by the commercial arms of the relevant universities (e.g. AccessMQ Limited, at Macquarie).

CCFS industry collaborative projects are designed to develop the strategic aspects and applications stemming from the fundamental research programs; many are based on understanding the architecture of the lithosphere and the nature of Earth’s geodynamic processes that have controlled the evolution of the lithosphere and its important discontinuities.

The basic research strands that have given rise to strategic applications include the use of geochemical data integrated with tectonic analyses and large-scale datasets (including geophysical) to understand the relationship between lithosphere domains and large-scale mineralisation. The use of sulfides to date mantle events, and the characterisation of crustal terrane development using U-Pb dating and Hf isotopic compositions of zircons (TerraneChron®) have been developed as regional isotopic mapping tools for integration with geophysical modelling.

This integrated approach, has been widely adopted by a significant proportion of the mineral exploration industry and has resulted in granting of licence to use methodologies developed. CCFS Chief and Associate Investigators, collaborating researchers and Board members have been instrumental in shaping UNCOVER Australia and in shaping the 2017 AMIRA “Undercover Roadmap” (ROADMAP). Indeed the 4-D Lithosphere Mapping approach, established by GEMOC and CCFS with industry partners, forms the robust conceptual basis for UNCOVER, contributed significantly to the AMIRA Roadmap process, and has become part of the vernacular in smart exploration strategies.