Australian Offshore Mineral Locations Map from 2006

Australia's offshore mineral occurrences and deposits within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf. The map draws together data from published and unpublished marine research surveys and government records, showing resources like manganese nodules, heavy mineral sand, and diamonds. It was produced collaboratively by Geoscience Australia, CSIRO, and state and territory geological surveys.

Use Cases

• Identify potential marine mineral resources based on mapped occurrences of manganese nodules, crusts, and heavy mineral sands.
• Analyze the relationship between seafloor physiography and mineral deposition based on integrated bathymetry data.
• Support marine planning and decision-making by integrating mineral location data with other marine information layers in AMSIS.

Strengths

• Integrates data from multiple authoritative sources, including Geoscience Australia, CSIRO, and state geological surveys.
• Covers a vast marine jurisdiction of up to 14.4 million square kilometers, larger than Australia's land area.
• Provides context with insets, images, and bathymetric data showing seafloor features.

Limitations

• Data is from 2006; freshness should be verified for current applications.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The description notes some mineralisation types were interpreted from limited information.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Compilation from published/unpublished marine research surveys and federal/state government records.

Time Range

August 2006

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 13:18:55.075834; primary data is from 2006.

Geography

Australia's exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf.