carbonatite / alkaline
Samarium prospectivityacross Australia, the USA & worldwide.
Carbonatite and alkaline igneous samarium, ranked and explained across the United States and Australia.
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✓ Australia
Ranked targets
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✓ United States
Ranked targets
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· Canada
Not modelled
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Everywhere else
Global model
Ranked targets come with national models in Australia and the United States. 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 samarium 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 samarium
The ground scored for samarium, with the evidence behind it and ranked targets in Australia and the United States. Anywhere else, the global model maps samarium.
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 samarium position.
See Due Diligence -
Talk to us about samarium
Partners, investors, publishers and researchers.
The deposit system
The samarium system.
Samarium is a light-to-middle rare-earth element best known for one alloy: samarium-cobalt, the permanent-magnet material that keeps its strength at temperatures where other magnets fail. Like the other rare earths it forms few minerals of its own, travelling instead in monazite, bastnäsite, apatite and xenotime within carbonatite intrusions and alkaline igneous complexes.
Read more: the deposit model, why it matters and where it is used +
More on samarium
MineDSS models samarium through those systems.
The deposit model
Carbonatites (rare, mantle-derived carbonate magmas) are the world's principal source of the light and middle rare earths, crystallising bastnäsite, monazite and apatite either magmatically or in late carbothermal veins, with samarium riding the light-rare-earth budget. Alkaline igneous complexes concentrate the same elements in peralkaline granites, syenites and their pegmatites. Both systems are marked by distinctive alkaline and carbonatitic geology, thorium-bearing radiometric anomalies, ring-like magnetic signatures, fenite alteration, and a coherent halo of incompatible high-field-strength elements.
Why it matters
Samarium sits on national critical-minerals lists because samarium-cobalt magnets are effectively irreplaceable in defence and aerospace systems that must perform hot: missile guidance, radar, electronic-warfare hardware and high-temperature motors and actuators. Supply is concentrated, separation capacity outside Asia is thin, and demand for temperature-tolerant magnets is growing, so credible new sources of samarium-bearing rare-earth ground carry strategic value well beyond their tonnage.
Where it's used
Samarium-cobalt permanent magnets dominate demand: they trade a little of neodymium-iron-boron's strength for far better performance at high temperature and in corrosive environments, which makes them the choice for defence electronics, aerospace actuators, downhole tools and high-speed motors. Samarium also serves in neutron-absorbing applications in nuclear reactors, in specialised optical glass and lasers, and historically in samarium-based cancer therapeutics.
Questions
Samarium: common questions.
Which samarium deposit types does MineDSS model? +
MineDSS models the systems that supply the light and middle rare earths: carbonatite intrusions (the world's principal rare-earth source, hosting bastnäsite, monazite and apatite) and alkaline igneous complexes, whose evolved granites, syenites and pegmatites concentrate the same elements. Samarium rides the light-rare-earth budget of both, and both leave the distinctive alkaline-geology, radiometric and incompatible-element footprint the model is built to read.
How is the model tested, and where can I run samarium? +
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 samarium run in Australia and the United States, 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 samarium? +
The co-located incompatible-element family: zirconium, niobium, thorium, uranium, hafnium, tantalum and beryllium, with zirconium, niobium and thorium leading. These high-field-strength elements concentrate in the same carbonatite and alkaline melts as the rare earths, and thorium gives the systems a clear radiometric expression. 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 estimate? +
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 samarium is present, and in what grade and quantity, still requires field programmes, 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.