Mount Weld rare earth deposit
A buried carbonatite pipe about 2,000 million years old near Laverton, Western Australia. Deep weathering turned its top into one of the world's richest rare earth deposits. A 1966 aeromagnetic survey found it, and it has been mined since 2011.
Dated events and their evidence
- about 2,056,000,000 years ago mainstream
monazite in the Mount Weld carbonatite gives a thorium-lead age of 2,056 ± 67 million years, dating the intrusion to the Paleoproterozoic source - 1966 CE mainstream
an aeromagnetic survey by the Bureau of Mineral Resources records a circular magnetic anomaly here source - 1967 CE mainstream
Utah Development Company takes up tenements over the anomaly; drilling later shows a carbonatite under 20 to 50 m of younger sediment source - 2011 CE mainstream
Lynas begins mining at Mount Weld source
Where
28.8600° S, 122.5480° E
Sources
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2021.104539
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2026.123327
- https://smedg.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Phillip-Hellman-Rare-Earths-Assessment-of-Ionic-Adsorbed-Deposits.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Weld_mine
- https://ozgeology.com/blogs/news/australia-s-most-important-mineral-deposit-mount-weld
Each event carries Aion's own evidence grade (mainstream, disputed or speculative). This page repeats what the globe shows for this place.