A global-scale exploration risk analysis technique to determine the best mineral belts for exploration

AbstractThe Global Zinc Project was developed by Pasminco Australia Ltd to provide a world view of zinc mineralisation and a methodology to prioritise geological provinces for exploration and the discovery of potentially economic ore deposits. The project grew in response to increasing risk from falling global discovery rates, maturing of exploration terranes in traditional areas, and the uncertainties of quantifying the risks for mineral investment in newly emergent countries. Components of the project involved the digital integration of a global mineral occurrences database, delineation of zinc provinces, ore deposit models, reverse economic studies, plate tectonic reconstructions and country risk analysis. The data were analysed in two separate modules. The Prospectivity Rating Module provides a quantitative comparison between the observed geology of a province and the mappable features of ore deposit models. It ranks the prospectivity of a province for the potential occurrence of one or more orebodies...