rare-metal pegmatite
Caesium prospectivityacross Australia, the USA, Canada & worldwide.
Caesium mineralisation in highly evolved rare-metal pegmatites, ranked and explained across Australia, the United States and Canada.
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✓ Australia
Ranked targets
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✓ United States
Ranked targets
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✓ Canada
Ranked targets
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Everywhere else
Global model
Ranked targets come with national models in Australia, the United States and Canada. Everywhere else, the global model returns the prospectivity map, the geology behind it and a confidence read. Next, the models are retrained on the full record and new sources, such as hyperspectral imagery, before we use them to rank and select ground.
How we rank caesium ground
From a country to a decision.
- 01 · Atlas
Know the ground
The geology, structure, recorded deposits, tenure and geochemistry over the ground, on one map with the source of every layer.
See Atlas - 02 · Open Ground
Find ground you can peg
Which ground is open, held or excluded, read from each licensing authority's own register.
See Open Ground - 03 · Prospectivity
Rank it for caesium
The ground scored for caesium, with the evidence behind it and ranked targets in Australia, the United States and Canada. Anywhere else, the global model maps caesium.
See Prospectivity - 04 · Spectral
Map the alteration
The alteration minerals and the structures that control them, from satellite: regional to district scale, and camp scale from WorldView-3.
See Spectral - 05 · Due Diligence
Check before committing
Tenure, land access, environment and the real cost to hold and test a caesium position.
See Due Diligence -
Talk to us about caesium
Partners, investors, publishers and researchers.
The deposit system
The caesium system.
Caesium is a soft, silvery-gold alkali metal, the most electropositive of the stable elements and one of the few metals that is liquid near room temperature, melting at about 28.5°C. It has effectively a single economic ore, pollucite, a caesium-rich zeolite-group aluminosilicate that crystallises only in the most chemically evolved pegmatites.
Read more: the deposit model, why it matters and where it is used +
More on caesium
MineDSS models the setting that hosts it: highly evolved rare-metal, or lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT), pegmatites, which are the residue of extreme granitic fractionation. These bodies leave a mappable footprint of zoned, coarse-grained intrusive rock, a distinctive rare-element geochemical halo and a characteristic structural and lithological association, which is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.
The deposit model
Rare-metal pegmatites form from the last, most fractionated fraction of a cooling peraluminous granite, where elements too large or too highly charged to enter common rock-forming minerals (lithium, caesium, rubidium, beryllium, tin, tantalum and niobium) are progressively concentrated into a residual melt and volatile-rich fluid. In the complex, petalite- and spodumene-bearing pegmatites that reach the greatest degree of evolution, this residue crystallises a zoned body whose innermost core can host pollucite alongside spodumene, petalite, lepidolite, beryl, cassiterite and columbite-tantalite.
Why it matters
Caesium is classified as a critical or strategic mineral across several major economies, including the United States, Canada and the European Union, because it combines indispensable high-technology roles with an unusually fragile supply. There are effectively no substitutes for caesium in its principal applications, and there is virtually no secondary or recycled stream to fall back on. Historically the world has relied on a mere handful of pollucite producers, so primary supply is among the most geographically concentrated of any element. Long lead times from discovery to production, together with that concentration, mean that transparent, defensible targeting of prospective ground carries real strategic weight for explorers and for the governments that permit and rely on them.
Where it's used
The largest single use of caesium is in caesium formate brines: dense, low-solids fluids prized for high-pressure, high-temperature oil and gas drilling, where they hold back reservoir pressure and protect equipment without damaging the formation. Its most exacting role is in timekeeping: the hyperfine transition of caesium-133 defines the SI second, so caesium atomic clocks underpin satellite navigation, telecommunications, power grids and financial networks. Caesium also serves in photoelectric cells and photonic devices, specialty optical glass, chemical catalysts, vacuum-tube getters and ion-propulsion research, applications that make secure, well-characterised supply a matter of both industrial and national interest.
Questions
Caesium: common questions.
Which caesium deposit types does MineDSS model? +
MineDSS models a single, highly productive host: highly evolved rare-metal pegmatites, the lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) family that represents the most fractionated end of granitic pegmatite systems. Caesium's only significant ore, pollucite, crystallises in the innermost, most evolved zones of these bodies, alongside minerals such as spodumene, petalite, lepidolite, beryl, cassiterite and columbite-tantalite. The model does not attempt to represent unrelated deposit styles; it ranks ground by how closely its evidence matches ground where samples assay anomalously high for the target mineral. Evolved pegmatites are effectively the world's only primary source of caesium.
How is the model tested, and where can I run caesium? +
Every MineDSS model is tested before it is served: we withhold whole blocks of ground, rebuild the model without them, and check that it still ranks the anomalous samples there above background, with test ground kept spatially separate. A model that does not pass our release gates is not used, for any mineral, in any country. National models for caesium run in Australia, the United States and Canada, with ranked targets. Anywhere else in the world, the global model returns the prospectivity map, the geology behind it and a confidence read. Skill is model-level, never a specific site's measured accuracy, and never a discovery or JORC / NI 43-101 resource claim.
Which pathfinder elements track caesium? +
The classic pathfinders are lithium, beryllium, tin, tantalum, niobium and thallium, with lithium, beryllium and tin leading for evolved rare-metal pegmatites. These elements track the extreme magmatic fractionation that concentrates caesium: lithium, beryllium and tin locked into the pegmatite's lithium, beryllium and tin minerals, tantalum and niobium in columbite-tantalite, and thallium in its most evolved potassium-bearing phases. These elements are part of the geochemical record our models learn from. In a run on any piece of ground, the map itself is read from geology and rock age, gravity and magnetics, radiometrics, terrain, satellite radar and spectral alteration, so it covers ground that has never been sampled.
Does a high MineDSS score mean a deposit or a resource? +
No. A high score means its evidence closely matches ground where samples assay anomalously high for the target mineral, and it merits closer exploration attention. It is not a discovery, not a JORC or NI 43-101 resource or reserve estimate, and not drilling or investment advice. MineDSS ranks prospectivity to help prioritise where to look; confirming whether pollucite-grade caesium mineralisation is present, and in what quantity and grade, still requires field mapping, sampling, drilling and independent assessment by qualified professionals.
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Partners
Exploration and mining companies interested in working with us.
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Investors
The record, the models and the ground they point to.
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Publishers and researchers
Geological surveys, universities and programmes whose work the record is built on.
MineDSS ranks prospectivity to help you decide where to explore next. It is not a discovery, not a JORC or NI 43-101 resource or reserve estimate, and not drilling or investment advice.