Australian Offshore Mineral Locations Map, August 2006

Australia's offshore mineral occurrences and deposits within its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf. The map draws data from published and unpublished marine research surveys and government records, showing minerals like manganese nodules, heavy mineral sand, and gold. It was produced by a collaboration between Geoscience Australia, CSIRO, and state 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 bathymetry and mineral depositional settings for exploration targeting.
• Support marine planning decisions by integrating mineral location data with other environmental layers in a spatial information system.

Strengths

• Covers a vast marine jurisdiction of up to 14.4 million square kilometers, larger than Australia's land area.
• Integrates data from multiple sources including federal and state government records and research surveys.
• Includes contextual bathymetry data and map insets showing mineral specimens and operational aspects.

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

Collaborative project drawing together data from published/unpublished marine research surveys and federal/state government records.

Time Range

Snapshot from August 2006.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 02:45:37.669282; the underlying data snapshot is from August 2006.

Geography

Australia's 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf.