WAXI first began in November 2006 and has involved 73 partner organisations over its 12 years. The next stage is due to start in late 2020.
Amira Global WAXI Program Director Adele Seymon said news of Stage 4 is well timed with exploration conference African Down Under being held in Perth next week.
P934C WAXI Stage 4 will focus on West African mineral systems, particularly the Archean mineralisation and architecture, and the impacts of earlier architectures on the development of mineral systems in the Birmian, the Panafrican and the overlying intracratonic basins.
P934C is a three-year project that will be led by Professor Mark Jessell, Centre for Exploration Targeting, University of Western Australia.
P934C overview
The West African Exploration Initiative is an ambitious research and training program based on cooperation between most of the major stakeholders in the West African minerals sector: research institutions, geological surveys, governments, and the minerals industry. It is focused on the mineral potential of the West African Craton.
“The earlier stages of WAXI focussed primarily on the Paleoproterozoic granite-greenstone terranes of the West African Craton,” Ms Seymon said.
“WAXI 4 aims at furthering this work to unravel the making of mineral systems not only in the Birimian terranes, but also in the neighbouring Archean, Pan-African Meso-Proterozoic and Phanerozoic basins. The key overarching philosophy will be to characterise and evaluate the role of both the lithospheric and crustal architecture on the development of mineral systems through time.”
Objectives
- Enhance the exploration potential of the African Craton through an integrated program of research and data gathering into its “anatomy”
- Help train the next generation of West African explorers
- Assist local geological surveys and universities in the region in their role of providing pre-competitive data and information.
WAXI Fast Facts
WAXI has operated in 12 countries over 12 years. Here is some of its stats:
- Stages 1-3: November 2006–May 2019
- Total funding to date: US$8.5M
- US$7.5M industry support
- US$1M government cash
- It is conducted in two languages (French and English)
- 73 partner organisations over 12 years
- 95 Postdoc, PhD, MSc, and Hons projects
- 650GB exploration geoscience database; the WAXI GIS now has 280+ distinct layers (over 80 of which are unique to WAXI); plus, a Geodynamic Atlas of time-characterised data layers allowing arbitrary time-slices to be calculated for key datasets
- 5,600 person-days of technical training in West Africa (36 courses)
- 650,000 km2 of geophysically constrained geological map
Congratulations to the WAXI team on the next stage of the project.
Want to know more? Click HERE to find out about an upcoming virtual showcase.
For more information or lodge an Expression of Interest please contact Adele Seymon.
Have you been involved in WAXI? We would love to hear your stories. Please contact Sara Sulway with pictures or news!
