Geochemical Data for Critical Metals in Australian Zinc Ores

Geoscience Australia compiled analytical data for cadmium, gallium, germanium, and indium concentrations in sphalerite from zinc deposits. The dataset supports a mineral systems approach to assess geochemical controls and estimate Australian endowments of these critical metals. It accompanies a 2026 publication in the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences.

Use Cases

• Model germanium and indium enrichment based on deposit temperature and fluid oxidation state features.
• Estimate Ge/Zn and In/Zn ratios to assess the endowment potential of specific Australian zinc deposits.
• Analyze correlations between cadmium, gallium, germanium, and indium concentrations in sphalerite samples.
• Identify geochemical controls distinguishing high-temperature volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits from lower-temperature shale-hosted deposits.

Strengths

• Data compiled from global and local ore geochemical datasets for comparative analysis.
• Analysis includes calculated characteristic Ge/Zn and In/Zn ratios for endowment estimation.

Limitations

• Sample size and row count for the compiled analytical data are not specified.
• The authors note a large amount of uncertainty in the derived endowment estimates.
• Geographic focus is primarily on Australian zinc deposits, limiting global generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Compilation of analytical data from sphalerite and existing global and local ore geochemical datasets.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Dataset last updated in April 2026.

Geography

Focus on Australian zinc deposits, notably the North Australian Zinc Belt, with reference to global datasets.