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Automated mineralogical logging of core from the Emmie Bluff, iron oxide copper-gold prospect, South Australia

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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A new rapid spectroscopic core and chip logging and imaging system developed by CSIRO was evaluated by PIRSA and GA on a wide variety of mineralised properties in South Australia, including the Emmie Bluff, iron oxide copper-gold-style prospect on the Stuart Shelf. During a three-month campaign in South Australia in 2003 the system logged over 50 000 metres of core from the State Core Library, company prospects and mines. The new system uses automated core tray handling, continuous visible and infrared spectroscopy, and digital imaging, to characterise and identify dominant mineral species on core, chips and pulps, at spatial resolutions of ~1 cm (spectral data) and ~0.1 mm (image data). The system can log up to 1000 m of core per day and several thousand metres of drill chips. Mineralogy is pre-interpreted using specialised identification software trained on a selected suite of minerals showing characteristic absorption features within the measured spectral range. On core from the Emmie Bluff iron oxide copper-gold prospect, 470 km NW of Adelaide and 80 km SSE of the Olympic Dam Cu-U-Au deposit, the spectral mapping system was able to characterise a number of alteration zones enveloping the sub-economic Cu-Au mineralisation. These consist of distal white mica phases showing decreasing Al content towards mineralisation, a zone of increased iron oxide content in the hangingwall to mineralisation, and a zone proximal and coincident to Cu-Au mineralisation that is enriched in chlorite with variable Mg/Fe chemistry. Additionally the results show background spectral characteristics that mimic the magnetite distribution.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Automated mineralogical logging of core from the Emmie Bluff, iron oxide copper-gold prospect, South Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/a2f4c25d-312e-4822-a8c6-2e1c6c1dcd36
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 22/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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  "type": "Polygon"
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Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Automated mineralogical logging of core from the Emmie Bluff, iron oxide copper-gold prospect, South Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/automated-mineralogical-logging-of-core-from-the-emmie-bluff-iron-oxide-copper-gold-prospect-so