Presentations
Kenex staff regularly present their work at conferences and workshops in New Zealand, Australia and Internationally. Have a look at our latest video presentations or scroll back through our archives below.
Mineral potential mapping of porphyry targets at the Bundarra Cu-Au project, Queensland
The Bundarra porphyry Cu-Au project is held by Duke Exploration Ltd., and is located in central Queensland, Australia, 110 km south-west of Mackay. The project was acquired in 2017. Kenex has completed, for Duke, detailed prospectivity modelling over the project area, and 3D modelling over the highest priority targets, in order to focus drilling funds on the most prospective areas. The project area surrounds the Cretaceous Bundarra Granodiorite, which intrudes the Permian Back Creek Group carbonaceous shales, sandstones and marls. Numerous Cu-Au occurrences are present within or near the hornfelsed contact aureole of the granodiorite. The project has been subject to significant exploration work, including mining of high grade ore shoots in the late 1800s to early 1900s, however, modern exploration has been sporadic, and without comprehensive follow-up of encouraging results.
All available historic data has been compiled and incorporated into a mineral potential map based on the porphyry mineral system. Maps representing all components of the mineral system including source, transport, deposition and trap are compared to known mineral occurrences, and the maps with the best spatial correlations have been combined to produce the mineral potential map. The results show that the Bundarra project has areas which are highly prospective for porphyry deposits. The areas of highest prospectivity have been highlighted, allowing work to focus on the targets with the greatest chance of success.
Following this work, 3D models of the two highest potential targets have been produced, incorporating field observations, historical drilling, magnetic data, and new 3D plate modelling of EM data. The 3D models will be used to inform drill targeting.
Targeting Lithium Mineralisation in the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand
Assessing polymetallic nodule deposit in the Cook Island Exclusive Economic Zone
With the use of GIS and geostatistical modelling techniques, we helped the Cook Island Seabed Authority to assess the potential for economic deposits of polymetallic nodule in their exclusive economic zone.
Improving Land use Solutions: A Collaborative Pilot Study with Local Indigenous Organizations
Geo-enabling Maori iwi to make better land management decisions
We are currently working with several Maori iwi in New Zealand to improve their GIS capabilities and integrate spatial knowledge in their decision-making processes. The main aim of this work is enabling the iwi to create and manage their own GIS projects and use the results to enhance their day to day operations and long-term planning. In this pilot study on land use improvement with GIS and RS we created a spatial model to find the best land uses for a given land block and then integrated the results with profit forecasts in order to provide the landowners with a better understanding of the land capability. We used high resolution data captured with drones as well as freely available spatial datasets that we processed, reclassified, weighted and combined using ESRI ArcGIS software. The result is a series of land unit polygons, each representing a unique combination of possible land uses and relative forecast profit. This combined spatial and economic information provides a comprehensive understanding of the potential of a block of land. The modelling process is simple, flexible, clear to understand and easy to replicate, but more importantly it can be effectively used to make informed land management decisions
Mineral Potential Mapping for Pre-Competitive Data Delivery in NSW Zone 54
A collaborative project between the Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW) and Kenex Pty Ltd was undertaken to evaluate the mineral potential of MGA Zone 54 in NSW as a continuation of GSNSW’s ongoing program of mineral potential mapping across the state, which commenced in the southern New England Orogen in 2017. The results of the Zone 54 project will deliver a pre-competitive geoscience data package that will be used to guide mineral exploration and land-use planning in the region. Prior to modelling, the available datasets were reviewed and updated by GSNSW to ensure accuracy and that relevant attribute information was present. Using a mineral systems approach, models were developed for Broken Hill Type Pb-Zn-Ag and IOCG mineralisation in the Curnamona Province, and Orogenic Au and VHMS mineralisation in the Delamerian-Thomson Orogens. The component processes in the mineral system models were translated into mappable targeting criteria. The key predictive variables, mapped using geological, geochemical, and geophysical datasets, were determined using spatial statistics. Mineral potential maps were generated for each mineral system using a weights of evidence approach. Area-frequency analyses show model efficiencies between 88-99%, which indicate almost all training points used to represent evidence of the mineral system being targeted are predicted within a small area. A comprehensive spatial data table outlining the details of the mappable targeting criteria and the results of the spatial data analysis, and maps of the key predictive variables were delivered, along with the mineral potential maps as a pre-competitive dataset for public release.
Project Generation from Mineral Potential Target Analysis
Big Data and Mineral Exploration, How to be an Organized Data Hoarder
Land Use Optimization with GIS
The Southern New England Orogen Mineral Potential Project
The SouthernThe Southern New England Orogen (SNEO) in the north-eastern part of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia is prospective for intrusion-related tin-tungsten, intrusion-related gold-bismuth-molybdenum-silver, and orogenic gold-antimony mineral systems. An initiative by the Geological Survey of NSW to conduct mineral potential modelling for these mineralisation styles in the SNEO has resulted in a comprehensive account of the mineral resource potential of the region.
The Geological Survey of NSW has a successful strategy of providing high quality pre-competitive data that has been complemented and enhanced by the mineral potential mapping approach. Datasets including seamless basement geology, detailed attribution of faults, and igneous fertility that were created by the survey prior to modelling enabled an extensive number of variables be tested using spatial statistics for relevance to each mineral system. The feedback from the data processing and spatial analysis allowed improvements to be made to the data and provided information on the relevance of the datasets to mineral exploration in the region.
The outputs of the empirical models are mineral potential maps that map the geological potential of the SNEO for each mineralisation style. The models are being used for land planning and advice purposes, technical resources for improved mineral system studies (including global endowment estimations), and for promoting exploration in the SNEO through the generation of prospective targets. Due to the richness of the geoscience datasets in NSW, the technique - including the creation of high-quality datasets combined with mineral potential modelling - is now being applied to other regions and mineral systems within NSW, and is readily applicable to any other area or mineral system of interest.
Mineral Potential Mapping for Land Management and Exploration Decision Making: A case study from the Southern New England Orogen
Using gravity to target gold at Tampia Hill, Western Australia
The discovery of the Tampia Hill orogenic gold deposit in the wheatbelt of Western Australia has sparked interest in this under-explored region of the state. The deposit is hosted within a granulite facies greenstone belt, with mineralisation mostly hosted in mafic gneiss, which has been intruded by undeformed and unmetamorphosed granite. A lack of outcrop in the project area has meant that geophysics has been vital for interpretation of the geology. A recent gravity and magnetic survey has allowed the most detailed interpretation of the underlying lithology and structures to date, and has highlighted previously unknown areas of mafic gneiss, with a similar signature to that at Tampia Hill. In order to extract the most useful information from the survey, spatial statistical analyses were conducted on the gravity survey data. The analyses over the project area map features within the gravity data that can be used to identify areas of known gold mineralisation. The results confirm that the gravity data not only provides critical geological information, but will also allow the identification of high priority targets for future exploration using spatial data modelling techniques.