Collaboration the focus of China trip

DMIRS geoscientists travelled to China for a month-long geological study
Date: Friday, 28 September 2018

Geoscientists from the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety's Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) travelled to China for a month-long geological study with colleagues from the China Geological Survey (CGS).

Manager Minerals Geoscience, Trevor Beardsmore said the study was part of a continuing series of exchanges between CGS and GSWA under a Memoranda of Understanding between the two surveys and followed an earlier visit by Chinese geoscientists to Western Australia in May and June.

Geologists from GSWA and the China Geological Survey examine drill core from the Xiarihamu nickel deposit, in the East Kunlun Mountains of Central China.
Geologists from GSWA and the China Geological Survey examine drill core from the Xiarihamu nickel deposit, in the East Kunlun Mountains of Central China.

"We are in the second year of a three-year project with CGS that involves cooperative research on nickel sulphide mineral systems in China and Western Australia," Dr Beardsmore said.

"Our aim is to better understand their origin and therefore improve the chance of discovering new deposits in Western Australia.

"Our CGS colleagues are active in mineral deposit studies and they are working with us on studies of nickel mineralisation in the Eastern Goldfields."

The China study included field visits to the giant, newly-discovered Jinchuan and Xiarihamu nickel deposits.

"This gave us an opportunity to sample the host intrusions and collect samples for age dating and chemical analysis," Dr Beardsmore said.

"We were also invited to the Physical Geological Data Center of the CGS in Langfang to log and sample drill core from the Xiarihamu deposit, and took part in workshops and seminars with CGS geoscientists."