alkaline igneous / peralkaline
Yttrium prospectivityacross Australia, the USA, Canada & worldwide.
Alkaline igneous and peralkaline yttrium and heavy-rare-earth enrichment, 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 yttrium 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 yttrium
The ground scored for yttrium, with the evidence behind it and ranked targets in Australia, the United States and Canada. Anywhere else, the global model maps yttrium.
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 yttrium position.
See Due Diligence -
Talk to us about yttrium
Partners, investors, publishers and researchers.
The deposit system
The yttrium system.
Yttrium is a silvery rare-earth metal that, although lighter than the lanthanides, carries the ionic radius and chemistry of the heavy rare earths and travels with them through geological processes. Its principal ore mineral is xenotime, an yttrium phosphate that preferentially takes up the heavy rare earths, with further yttrium hosted in monazite and in the complex silicates and oxides of alkaline rocks such as eudialyte, gadolinite and fergusonite.
Read more: the deposit model, why it matters and where it is used +
More on yttrium
MineDSS ranks ground for yttrium and heavy-rare-earth enrichment in alkaline igneous and related peralkaline systems: highly evolved intrusions and their hydrothermal overprints, where incompatible elements concentrate. These settings leave a mappable footprint: evolved intrusive geology, radiometric and magnetic responses, altered ground and a distinctive high-field-strength geochemical halo. That is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.
The deposit model
Alkaline and peralkaline igneous systems are the dominant hard-rock source of yttrium and the heavy rare earths. They form in continental within-plate settings (rifts, failed rifts and hotspot magmatism), where prolonged fractional crystallisation drives incompatible elements, including yttrium, zirconium, niobium and the halogens fluorine and chlorine, into the last and most evolved melts. Peralkaline granites and agpaitic nepheline syenites crystallise this enriched residue, and fluorine- and chlorine-rich magmatic-hydrothermal fluids then remobilise and upgrade the heavy rare earths into roof zones, pegmatites and veins, where minerals such as xenotime, eudialyte and fergusonite are deposited.
Why it matters
Yttrium is classed as a critical and strategic mineral across the major industrial economies because it belongs to the heavy rare earths, the scarcest and most supply-constrained part of the rare-earth basket. It is indispensable to phosphors, lasers, high-temperature ceramics and superconductors, and demand is reinforced by lighting, electronics, aerospace and defence supply chains. Global production and separation of the heavy rare earths remain concentrated in a small number of countries, and recent export restrictions on yttrium compounds and metal have sharpened concern over security of supply. Because economic heavy-rare-earth deposits are geologically uncommon and slow to bring into production, transparent, defensible targeting of prospective ground carries real strategic weight for both explorers and the governments that permit them.
Where it's used
Yttrium's largest roles are in advanced materials. Yttria-stabilised zirconia provides the thermal-barrier coatings that protect jet-engine turbine blades, the electrolyte in solid-oxide fuel cells, and the oxygen sensors in vehicle exhausts, as well as tough structural and dental ceramics. Yttrium aluminium garnet is the host crystal for widely used solid-state lasers and, doped with cerium, the phosphor that makes white LED lighting possible, while yttrium oxide doped with europium is the classic red phosphor of displays. Yttrium barium copper oxide was the first material to superconduct above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, and yttrium also serves as an alloying addition, a microwave garnet and, as its radioactive isotope, a targeted cancer therapy.
Questions
Yttrium: common questions.
Which yttrium deposit types does MineDSS model? +
MineDSS ranks ground for yttrium and heavy-rare-earth enrichment in alkaline igneous and related peralkaline systems. These are highly evolved intrusions (peralkaline granites and agpaitic nepheline syenites), together with the magmatic-hydrothermal veins, pegmatites and altered roof zones derived from them, where incompatible elements concentrate. Yttrium is hosted mainly in xenotime and in the complex rare-earth silicates and oxides of alkaline rocks, and behaves as a heavy rare earth throughout. 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.
How is the model tested, and where can I run yttrium? +
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 yttrium 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 yttrium? +
The classic pathfinders are zirconium, niobium, thorium, uranium, beryllium, hafnium and tantalum, with zirconium, niobium and thorium leading for alkaline and peralkaline systems. These are the incompatible, high-field-strength elements that concentrate alongside yttrium in evolved alkaline melts, tracing the zircon, pyrochlore and thorium-bearing phases that travel with heavy-rare-earth minerals. 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 yttrium and the heavy rare earths are present, and in what quantity and grade, 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.