Land Use Geoscience – Protecting Western Australia’s Titanium-Zircon Resources for Future Extraction

摘要

Western Australia (WA) has been a signifi cant world producer of titanium minerals (rutile, ilmeniternand leucoxene) and zircon for over 55 years. In 2010, despite global diffi culties, WA accounted forrn12 per cent of world production for zircon, ten per cent for ilmenite, and eight per cent for rutile. Withrndownstream processing, titanium minerals (ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene) and zircon exports for 2010rnwere valued at $511 M (Department of Mines and Petroleum, 2010).rnProduction is dominated by two areas of the Perth Basin, namely the Eneabba and the Bunbury-rnCapel regions, which are located 240 km north and 200 km south of Perth respectively. Mineralisationrnis within Cenozoic beach or near shore dune deposits at three broad altitudes related to the presentrncoastline, and two older higher sea-level still-stands. The titanium-zircon minerals presumably werernderived from the underlying Mesozoic sediments of the Perth Basin. Contrary to expectations, agerndating suggests that the ultimate source of most of this mineralisation was not the adjacent YilgarnrnCraton.rnWith the cooperation of industry, the Geological Survey of Western Australia has mapped all knownrnsignifi cant titanium-zircon mineralisation within the Perth Basin. This mapping has identifi edrn‘strategic mineral resource protection areas’ that should be set aside for future mining, ‘sterilised’rnand ‘mined’ areas that generally do not restrict land use options, and ‘possible strategic resourcernareas’ which have exploration potential for hosting titanium-zircon mineral deposits.rnThe Perth Basin is currently undergoing rapid residential and industrial development. By informingrnall stakeholders of the locations of potential mining areas, the titanium-zircon mapping has thernability to reduce future land use confl icts, and facilitate sequential land use planning. Appropriaternplanning measures are being implemented to ensure that the Western Australia’s titanium-zirconrnminerals industry remains strong and viable in the future.