The power of legacy geochemical sample collections

Geoscience Australia's legacy samples unlock enduring value as new research methods emerge. Our advanced analyses of surface materials, including sediments and soils, set baselines and identify mineral systems, spotlighting critical minerals. This talk discusses fresh data and insights from past geochemical surveys in Cape York, and the first-ever continental heavy minerals dataset and atlas, derived from the National Geochemical Survey of Australia samples.

Geoscience Australia has a large holding of archived samples from regional- to continental-scale geochemical studies conducted over the last 50 years, the majority collected at high sampling densities that would be cost-prohibitive today. As part of the Australian government’s Exploring for the Future program, funding was dedicated to re-analyse ~9,000 samples from these legacy surveys. They were re-analysed for 63 elements at a single laboratory producing a seamless, internally consistent, high-quality dataset, providing valuable new insights.

0:00 - Introduction
2:45 - Seminar - Phil Main
28:00 - Seminar - Evgeniy Bastrakov