Potential deposits of rare earths elements which are crucial for clean energy and defence applications, such as sonar and jet engines, have been identified in early results of the Albanese Government’s $3.4 billion Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity program.

The Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative, led by Geoscience Australia, is a 35-year program to fully map Australia and provide free data to help identify minerals, groundwater and resources to support exploration and development.

An early assessment of results has found high potential sites for heavy rare earths elements, such as dysprosium and terbium, in remote areas of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King said the results underlined the importance of geoscience to supporting mineral exploration and helping Australians understand what resources lie beneath the surface.

“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,” Minister King said.

“Accurate and reliable precompetitive geoscience from the program will allow explorers to get a head start on future discoveries.”

The Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative supports the Albanese Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy and is part of government support worth around $28 billion to build Australia’s critical minerals sector and strengthen global supply chains.

Earlier this month, Minister King announced details of Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve, including an initial focus on gallium, antimony and rare earths.

The high potential new sites have been identified by analysing unconformities, where rocks hundreds of millions of years apart in age can be found directly on top of each other, and by linking those time gaps to models of heavy rare-earth mineral systems.

The high potential areas include the Birrindudu-Halls Creek region on the border of WA and the NT, parts of the Yeneena, Louisa, and Murraba basins in WA, and parts of the South Nicholson Basin in the NT.

Details of the assessment are published on the Geoscience Australia website.