The Australian federal government’s exploration program has identified high-potential sites for heavy rare earths elements, such as dysprosium and terbium, in remote areas of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
The Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity program, launched in 2025, is a 35-year initiative aimed at fully mapping Australia and providing free data to help identify minerals, groundwater and resources to support exploration and development.
Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King said the results highlighted the importance of geoscience to supporting mineral exploration.
“These results are just the start of how the Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity program will help us understand where to find the critical minerals and resources we will need to support clean energy, defence and medical technology,” King said.
“Accurate and reliable precompetitive geoscience from the program will allow explorers to get a head start on future discoveries.”
The high-potential sites were identified through analysis of geological unconformities, where rocks hundreds of millions of years apart in age can be found directly on top of each other.
These time gaps were then linked to models of heavy rare earth mineral systems.
The identified areas include the Birrindudu–Halls Creek region on the border of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, parts of the Yeneena, Louisa and Murraba basins in Western Australia, and parts of the South Nicholson Basin in the Northern Territory.
The Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative supports the federal government’s Critical Minerals Strategy and is part of government support worth around AU$28 billion to build Australia’s critical minerals sector and strengthen global supply chains.
