Northern Australia Geochemical Survey - Mineralogy and Cation Exchange Capacity Datasets

As part of the Australian Critical Minerals Research and Development Hub, Geoscience Australia completed the Accelerating Development of Australia's Rare Earth Resources (ADARER) project, with the aim of accelerating the discovery, extraction, and processing of rare earth elements (REE) in Australia. The ADARER project supported the mineralogical characterisation and cation exchange capacity (CEC) analysis of samples from both the Northern Australia Geochemical Survey (NAGS) and the National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA). The purpose of this analytical campaign was to obtain bulk quantitative mineralogy (including clay speciation) for catchment outlet sediment samples. These mineralogical datasets provide insights into source lithologies, degree of weathering, types of weathering products (e.g., clay species), and physico-chemical properties such as cation exchange capacity (CEC). This data release only includes the data relating to the NAGS project.
As part of this study, 836 field-collected bulk samples from the NAGS project have undergone mineralogical characterisation using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis by an external Supplier (Sietronics Proprietary Limited). This included sample preparation, bulk sample XRD analysis, clay fraction separation and XRD analysis, mineral identification and quantification, and halloysite content estimation. In addition, samples were analysed to assess their CEC.

The following datasets and documents are included in this data release:

1) Summary report.

2) Contractor delivered report (Sietronics Pty Ltd) detailing sampling, bulk sample and clay sample preparation, instrumentation and measuring parameters, XRD analytical techniques, quality assurance, and reporting.

3) Sub-contractor delivered report (ALS Global) detailing certificate of analysis.

4) Analytical data (CSV format), including (i) mineral identification and quantification, (ii) clay mineral identification, and (iii) CEC results.

5) Metadata statement.