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Mineral potential of the Archaean Pilbara and Yilgarn Cratons, Western Australia

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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There are two Archaean cratons in Western Australia, the Pilbara Craton and the Yilgarn Craton. Although tectonic models for each are controversial, there are clear differences between the two cratons in terms of age, relative abundance of rock types and structure. There are also contrasting ranges of mineral deposits. The Yilgarn Craton is the more prospective, especially for nickel, gold and tantalum. It contains world-class deposits of each of these commodities and many other small to medium-sized deposits of nickel and gold. A vigorous approach to exploration in the Yilgarn Craton over the past fifteen years has been rewarded with a steady stream of discoveries and conversion of prospects to mines. The Archaean rocks of the Yilgarn have also given rise to large deposits of bauxite and heavy-mineral sands, as a result of Tertiary weathering processes. The Pilbara Craton appears to be less well-endowed with mineral wealth, but contains some large sub-economic deposits of platinum-group elements, molybdenum and barite, as well as several clusters of volcanogenic base-metal sulphide deposits. Some of these deposits may become operating mines in the medium term and indicate the potential for more, possibly higher grade deposits in the Pilbara Craton.

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Title Mineral potential of the Archaean Pilbara and Yilgarn Cratons, Western Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/a0b73b4a-6d59-4595-9f43-8ef47c2a8274
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        110.0,
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      ],
      [
        130.0,
        -36.0
      ],
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        -12.0
      ],
      [
        110.0,
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      ],
      [
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      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Mineral potential of the Archaean Pilbara and Yilgarn Cratons, Western Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/mineral-potential-of-the-archaean-pilbara-and-yilgarn-cratons-western-australia