Spatial modelling has been used to determine potential locations of granite-related nickel skarn mineralisation throughout eastern Australia. It is believed that during granite intrusion, fluid can leach nickel from nearby mafic lithologies and combine with sulfur to form nickel sulfides. Currently exploration for this style of deposit has been limited to the region around the Avebury Deposit in western Tasmania. As the lithologies near Avebury are not unique it is feasible that similar deposits could exist elsewhere in Australia._x000D_
The weights of evidence spatial data modelling technique was used to evaluate the wealth of geological data available over eastern Australia and included known economic deposits as training data to weight the themes of the model._x000D_
These weighted themes were combined to create a prospectivity map showing areas favourable for granite-related nickel deposits. Several regions were identified by the model to have good potential to host nickel mineralisation similar to the Avebury deposit. These include areas located throughout New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the Tasman District of New Zealand and, in particular, the Rockhampton region of eastern Queensland._x000D_
AnEXTENDED ABSTRACTis available for download. A full-length paper was notprepared for this presentation.