LAUSR

The emergence of the concept of a ‘mineral system’ has changed the way regional-scale mineral prospectivity is assessed. Geographically widespread datasets and deep penetrating geophysical methods are required to map the various components of the mineral system, which may encompass areas of perhaps thousands of squares kilometres and extend to mantle depths. Key mineral system components that can be detected in this fashion include deep penetrating faults and the suture zones between major geological blocks, which are important controls on the movement of metal-carrying magmas and brines in a variety of mineral systems. Two case studies from mineralised terrains in Western Australia illustrate the use of deep penetrating geophysical methods in mineral exploration. MT data from a 300 km long traverse in the Archean Yilgarn Craton map numerous steeply dipping conductive zones which coincide with linear anomalies in potential field data and are interpreted as deep penetrating faults. Also, lateral changes in...