The Centre’s immediate focus is on developing a research infrastructure with demonstrated capabilities to produce effective technologies for improved exploration targeting and the capacity to advance the science of exploration targeting.

CET’s research will be based on five themes, closely integrated to achieve its mission, particularly in covered terranes in WA:

• Progressive Risk and Value Analysis addresses industry’s desire to more closely integrate the business and science of exploration. This topic is rarely considered in exploration-related research and its full integration into the work of CET will be timely, scientifically challenging, and a unique advantage.
• The Brownfields Exploration and Greenfields Exploration themes cover the continuum of scales from mine to global. These are field-based themes with several common elements; however, their separate identities are based on the way in which the exploration industry operates.
• The Geophysics for Targeting theme aims to enhance and integrate existing geophysical data sets with outputs from Brownfields and Greenfields Exploration themes. It is also expected to make important contributions to prospectivity mapping.

Outputs from these four themes will be the basis of integrated targeting techniques and tools that can be applied to exploration at all scales, particularly in covered terranes in WA. Examples include:

• targeting and prospectivity mapping in 2D and 3D;
• sets of critical parameters that appear to control different ore deposit styles;
• parameters for targeting in data-poor terranes; and
• methods for practical consideration of risk and value as these tools are applied.

Integrated Exploration Targeting is expected to yield new insights at the intersections of tectonics, geology, geochemistry and geophysics.