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AusLAMP: imaging the Australian lithosphere for resource potential, an example from northern Australia

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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Long-period magnetotelluric (MT) data allow geoscientists to investigate the link between mineralisation and lithospheric-scale features and processes. In particular, the highly conductive structures imaged by MT data appear to map the pathways of large-scale palaeo-fluid migration, the identification of which is an important element of several mineral system models. Given the importance of these data, governments and academia have united under the Australian Lithospheric Architecture Magnetotelluric Project (AusLAMP) to collect long-period MT data across the continent on a ~55 km-spaced grid. Here, we use AusLAMP data to demonstrate the MT method as a regional-scale tool to identify and select prospective areas for mineral exploration undercover. We focus on the region between Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory and east of Mount Isa in Queensland. Our results image major conductive structures up to 150 km deep in the lithosphere, such as the Carpentaria Conductivity Anomaly east of Mount Isa. This anomaly is a significant lithospheric-scale conductivity structure that shows spatial correlations with a major suture zone and known iron oxide–copper–gold deposits. Our results also identify similar features in several under-explored areas that are now considered to be prospective for mineral discovery. These observations provide a powerful means of selecting frontier regions for mineral exploration undercover.. Citation: Duan, J., Kyi, D., Jiang, W. and Costelloe, M., 2020. AusLAMP: imaging the Australian lithosphere for resource potential, an example from northern Australia. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.

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Field Value
Title AusLAMP: imaging the Australian lithosphere for resource potential, an example from northern Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/296d4ab8-d321-4a20-ba59-57cd592e37f0
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 08/04/2019
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "AusLAMP: imaging the Australian lithosphere for resource potential, an example from northern Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/auslamp-imaging-the-australian-lithosphere-for-resource-potential-an-example-from-northern-aust