Slide 1

Scale and magmatic Ni systems Less chemistry More physics of location, location, location Latest world-class nickel deposit was found in Canada by diamond explorers Voiseys Bay, Canada Photograph: Data Metallogenica Jon Claou-Long

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Basal contact Feeder conduit? Extent of outcrop 5 km Embayment or feeder? Prospective intrusion in Australia Andrew Young Hills, Arunta NT

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1. Superposition and correlation 2. Uniformitarian approach to the past applying plate tectonics is the latest version Do Geologists have any Principles? 0. Scale variance of geologic systems fractal scaling and the power law in observations

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The biggest scale the planet 3000 01000 2000 12 16 8 4 24 20 Ni (Million Tonnes) Age (Ma) Duluth (USA) Sudbury (Canada) Pechenga (Russia) Voiseys Bay (Canada) Norilsk (Russia) Thomnson (Canada) Jinchuan (China) Raglan (Canada) Mt Keith, Perseverance, Yakabindie, Kambalda, Honeymoon Well (Aus) Nebo-Babel (Aus) Bushveld PGEs (Africa) Great Dyke (Africa) Magmatic Ni-PGE deposits through time

Slide 5

The smallest scale local detection Sirius Resources NL at this scale Why is this deposit Where it is? appears in a local physical constriction

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at this scale Why are these deposits Where they are? appear to be in a lithosphere physical constriction Nova discovery, 2012 Sirius Resources Begg et al. (2010); ASX Intermediate scale 1: the whole magma system

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Isotropic shear wave inversion, 75 km depth dataset from RSES, ANU Intermediate scale 1: the whole magma system

Slide 8

The Arunta Region, NT Mafic magmatic events 1900 900 Ma Scale Up From Local to All-Continent Scale Intermediate scale 1: the whole magma system

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Attutra Gabbro PGE-Au-V occurrence Hart Dolerite PGE-Au-V occurrence Eastern Creek Volcanics feeder zone segregation of PGE-bearing, Ni-Cu-poor sulphides Intermediate scale 1: the whole magma system ~1780 Ma Hart Large Igneous Province Correlated mafic magmatism now in disparate regions

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Intermediate scale 2: the (paleo)margin focus Sirius Resources NL at this scale Why is this deposit Where it is?

Slide 11

Ken McClay, FDRG University of London Intermediate scale 2: the (paleo)margin focus

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Sirius Resources NL at this scale Why is this deposit Where it is? appears in a crustal physical constriction appear

Slide 13

3. The intrusion local-scale, focus of magma feed 2. The whole segmented (paleo)margin crustal-scale, cryptic orthogonals focus magma transport 1. The whole magma system lithosphere-scale, magma transport mantle-surface Scale and magmatic Ni systems Less chemistry More physics of location, location, location Do other systems operate to the same 3 scales? Orogenic gold? Uranium? IOCG? for magma read fluid

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Decision Support Data Structured Decision Making with incomplete data, ambiguity, only partial quantification Structured Decision Making with incomplete data, ambiguity, only partial quantification How to get from Data to Investment Decision Collaboration of analysts with different expertise and organisational perspectives 8. 7. Conflict Management 6. Challenge the Analysis 5. Assessment of Cause and Effect 4. Hypothesis Generation and Testing 3. Scenarios and Indicators 2. Ideas Generation 1.Decomposition and Visualisation 0.

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Benoit Mandelbrot, 1924 2010 intellectual father of the Fractal Geometry of Nature which now pervades all observational science

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1 : 100 000 1 : 250 000 1 : 1 000 000 Somewhere in Queensland Intermediate scale 2: the (paleo)margin focus