South Australia – leading the global transformation economy

Thank you for connecting with the South Australian government at PDAC 2024.

South Australia is leading the nation in the energy transition and is an integral part of the shift towards low carbon industry and a decarbonised world.

We are the place where huge deposits of copper, magnetite, graphite, uranium and rare earths, critical to the energy transition, are co-located with an existing renewable energy supply. The perfect strategic convergence of solar, wind, infrastructure, critical minerals and metals.

By 2030, South Australia expects to be over 100% renewable. To achieve this, we are heavily investing in a green hydrogen industry. Hydrogen that can be used to embed clean energy into green steel manufacturing using the State’s huge magnetite resources and help countries outside Australia meet their net zero targets. It’s also transportable and versatile.

The Northern Water Supply project will unlock multiple and substantial resources, putting South Australia on the cusp of the largest manufacturing renaissance in the modern era.

But leading the transformation economy isn’t just about ensuring we decarbonise, it means we focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, new product and service development, and supporting technological advances to support our future.

South Australia is “open for business” so please visit us at Booth 416, within the Australia Minerals Pavilion at PDAC, or set up an in-person or virtual meeting to discuss your future in South Australia.

Email us at dem.events@sa.gov.au

Our team at PDAC 2024

  • Dr Paul Heithersay, Chief Executive
  • Rebecca Knights, Executive Director, Strategic Policy and Delivery
  • Dr Bronwyn Camac, Director, Geological Survey of South Australia
  • Christie Gerrard, Manager, Geoscience Information and Delivery
  • Dr Carmen Krapf, Senior Principal Geologist and Team Leader, Mineral Systems and Resources

You can find our team at Booth 416 of the PDAC Trade Show.

You can also hear from other Australian companies and jurisdictions throughout the event.

Sunday 3 March 2:00 pm

South Australia: Geoscience Data Delivery

Find out how South Australia is harnessing the latest in digital technology to enable data-driven exploration and discovery.

Download the presentation (PDF, 3.2 MB)

Monday 4 March 8:30 am to 4:00 pm EST

Australia: innovative mineral exploration and investment opportunities
Room 205D

Join Dr Bronwyn Camac and the Australia Minerals team to learn about innovative mineral exploration, battery metals and the range of minerals investment opportunities that exist in Australia. Australian geological surveys lead the world in the acquisition, development, application and delivery of pre-competitive geoscience information. This data is available free to any individual, government or company anywhere in the world. Australia Minerals will present a range of short (up to one hour) sessions highlighting Australia’s world-leading data and opportunities. Hear technical details on the latest data collection programs and releases that will lead to identification of Australia’s world-class mineral deposits. Gain an understanding of the production profile of battery metals, areas of current activity, infrastructure, geoscience initiatives supporting mineral exploration and local investment assistance. This session will include presentations from Australian companies and government agencies on investment-ready mineral projects. Please check back closer to the convention for a detailed program.

Tuesday 5 March 10:48 am to 11:12 am EST

Applying an energy system approach to unravel sedimentary-hosted mineral deposits in the world-class Olympic IOCG province of South Australia
Room 716

This presentation by Dr Carmen Krapf is part of the sediment-hosted copper deposits: Key to the green energy transition session. It draws on insights derived from the Sedimentary Copper Mineral Systems of the Stuart Shelf project where GSSA has partnered with CSIRO to develop a robust model and understanding of the basin architecture of the Stuart Shelf, to guide exploration for sedimentary copper in this area using an energy system approach.

Our projects

CMSA is expanding our understanding of South Australia’s critical mineral potential and identifying critical mineral strategy based on an analysis of the economic risk and supply chain, and sovereign risks associated with critical mineral industry.

This is being achieved by reviewing mineralisation styles, re-sampling and re-analysing existing drill core from major occurrences, examining the critical mineral potential of tailings, stockpiles, waste dumps and historic mine operation and the undertaking of a detailed economic study.

This project will see the publication of a significant amount of precompetitive critical mineral geoscience data to increase industry and investor understanding of South Australia’s potential.

Read more about CMSA

Key CMSA products to date:

GP2 has focused on filling data gaps in the Gawler Craton to de-risk exploration and increase our understanding of the area. This project undertook two years of intense data acquisition including gravity surveys, magnetotellurics, petrophysics, geochronology, geochemistry, landscape mapping, AEM and reviews of legacy data.

Read more about GP2

All the GP2 outcomes can be accessed via one link to the SARIG Catalogue.

Download GP2 products

SADM has three integrated components designed to deliver modern geological data.

  1. Develop a modern data management and delivery system which integrates with existing databases.
  2. Design and build a data capture system for new geological data with in-built quality control.
  3. Translate and integrate existing geological data / legacy data.

This project will modernise our geological map data currently available for mineral exploration and the general public.

The SADM project will deliver significantly improved and seamless geological map and associated data in a format that better meets the business needs of mineral explorers and data scientists. This will facilitate mineral exploration targeting using machine-learning, thus supporting the development of the mineral resources sector in South Australia.

Learn more about SADM

Following the success of the Delamerian National Drilling Initiative (NDI), the Geological Survey of South Australia will once again partner with MinEx CRC to drill the under explored areas of the state.

In 2024 the focus will be on the northern Gawler Craton. This area shares affinities with world class mineral provinces in South Australia and northern Australia but is currently lacking in fundamental geological information to underpin successful exploration.

This project aims to provide baseline geoscience and mineral potential insights to expand our knowledge and support future investment and understanding of the region.

Read more about the NDI

Commodities in South Australia

South Australia hosts 69% of Australia’s economic resources of copper (Geoscience Australia 2021) with much yet to be developed.

With three major mines in South Australia and a predicted doubling in demand for copper due to global technological advancements, South Australia is already a key player for copper but is ready for more investment.

Read more about copper in South Australia

South Australia

  • is home to the world’s largest zircon mine
  • has the world’s second largest proven graphite reserve
  • is an emerging province for ionic clay hosted rare earth elements
  • contains around 17 billion tonnes of known magnetite ore and 13% of Australia’s economic demonstrated resources for magnetite
  • has vast resources of kaolin-halloysite offering opportunities to convert to high purity alumina
  • has sedimentary hosted mineral systems known for high cobalt association, accounting for 40% of South Australian copper occurrences.

In the push towards lowering emissions, the world’s nuclear generating capacity will need to continue to step up. South Australia’s world class uranium deposits and potential projects will continue to deliver the required fuel to aid the transition to a low carbon economy and generate electricity with a low carbon footprint.

South Australia hosts 25% of the world’s known uranium and has sat among the world top five uranium producers in the last decade.

Read more about South Australian uranium

South Australian Resource Information Gateway (SARIG)

SARIG is the ultimate de-risking suite of tools for South Australia. SARIG provides open pre-competitive geoscience data, information and products. SARIG is also a key information source, accessing state infrastructure, commodity and critical mineral statistics, land use, and mining and exploration project information.

SARIG was also placed 1st on the Fraser Institute 2022 global rankings for geological databases.

Learn more about SARIG

Maps and data

A range of South Australian maps and data are available including:

  • Geological maps and mapsheets
  • Mines and mineral resource maps
  • Exploration models
  • Solid geology
  • Regolith
  • Mineral potential

Access maps and data

South Australia – partnering for growth

Invest SA is a dedicated team of investment and business professionals that can connect you with opportunities, industry networks, and other government agencies in South Australia.

Learn more about Invest SA and Minerals and Energy opportunities.

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