CET Director Campbell McCuaig is part of an international team undertaking ground-breaking research to help resource companies predict the location of hidden mineral deposits.
The team consists of 11 partner companies, 11 geoscience agencies and 11 research institutions working together to map and understand 4D lithospheric architecture of Neoarchaean to Paleoproterozoic terranes and its control of mineral systems.
Professor McCuaig said the study will help companies answer the key questions of where to drill.
"We've come up with an innovative way of looking at crustal architecture that controls the location of clusters of mineral deposits" he said.
The study began in January 2011 and is mapping the Northern Territory, West Africa and WA.