In 2019, the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ) commenced the New Economy Minerals Initiative (NEMI), a 5-year program aiming to build up a comprehensive systematic physical and virtual reference collection of samples and associated geological data characterising signatures and footprints of the major mineral systems and their key constituent deposit types and styles in the Mount Isa Province, Queensland (the so-called Reference Collection project). The initial phase of the project was funded under the Queensland Government's Strategic Resources Exploration Program (2017-2021), which is extended into NEMI-2 (2022-2024) Program. This Reference Collection project was planned out to be implemented in several stages, including:
- Acquisition of drill core and samples representative of ore and mineralisation from major IOCG, Pb-Zn-Ag and Cu-Au deposits, now permanently housed at the John Campbell Miles drill core facility in Mount Isa
- Continuous core scanning using hyperspectral (HyLogger) and X-ray core scanning instruments (Minalyzer, TruScan - targeted campaigns) on the drill core housed at our drill core facility, along with an expanded sample collection provided by the industry partners (HyLogger and Minalizer data in this data release)
- Extending a systematic collection of multi-element whole-rock and mineral geochemistry data (Multi-element whole-rock is included this data release; mineral geochemistry in the next data release) - Collection of integrated in situ micro-analytical datasets and imaging to enable more meaningful interpretation of the data, including data integration across different scales (macro to micro). This will include micro-analytical techniques, such as SEM, TIMA, EPMA, LA-ICP-MS and MicroXRF (MAIA), that are required to characterise host rocks, alteration hellos and importantly the endowment of both base-metals and critical metals (initial data in the next data release).

ISSN: 2206-0340
ISBN: 978-1-9256-0938-7

Bibliographic reference: E. Belousova, V. Lisitsin, C. Dhnaram, P. Blake, J. Tang, S. Gopalakrishnan, D. Killen, F.E. von Gnielinski, M. Valetich 2022. Hyperspectral imaging and whole-rock multi-element geochemistry for Pb-Zn-Ag and Cu deposits of NW Queensland – Data package. GSQ Technical Notes 2022/04.